verb (used with object), bowd·ler·ized, bowd·ler·iz·ing.
- to expurgate (a written work) by removing or modifying passages considered vulgar or objectionable.
verb
- (tr) to remove passages or words regarded as indecent from (a play, novel, etc); expurgate
v.1836, from Thomas Bowdler (1754-1825), English editor who in 1818 published a notorious expurgated Shakespeare, in which, according to his frontispiece, “nothing is added to the original text; but those words and expressions omitted which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family.” Related: Bowdlerized; bowdlerizing.