bowdlerise

bowdlerise is the alternative form of bowdlerize.

Meaning of bowdlerize

bowdlerize (third-person singular simple present bowdlerizes, present participle bowdlerizing, simple past and past participle bowdlerized)

(transitive) To remove or alter those parts of a text considered offensive, vulgar, or otherwise unseemly.
- The bowdlerized version of the novel, while free of vulgarity, was also free of flavor.

Bowdlerise (third-person singular simple present Bowdlerises, present participle Bowdlerising, simple past and past participle Bowdlerised)

third-person singular present	bowdlerises
present participle	bowdlerising
past participle	bowdlerised
past	bowdlerised
third-person singular present	Bowdlerises
present participle	Bowdlerising
past participle	Bowdlerised
past	Bowdlerised

From Bowdler + -ise.

What is bowdlerise the alternative form of?: Bowdlerise is the alternative form of bowdlerize.
What part of speech is bowdlerise?: Bowdlerise is a verb.
What is the past tense of bowdlerise?: The past tense of bowdlerise is bowdlerised.

Adapted from Wiktionary: bowdlerise (page history and authors); Bowdlerise (page history and authors); bowdlerize (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-bowdlerise.wav.

Cite this entry: “bowdlerise.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bowdlerise. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.