infantilize

Verb

infantilize (third-person singular simple present infantilizes, present participle infantilizing, simple past and past participle infantilized)

1. (transitive) To reduce (an adult) to the state or status of an infant.
   • For too long, many of us have sought unity by binding ourselves together with the umbilical cords of dogma. They have done less and less to nurture us in recent years, and more and more to infantilize us.1984 August 18, Scott Tucker, “The Politics of Perversion”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 6, page 8
   • Once [Chile] began the transition to democracy in the 1990s, two journalists, Álvaro Díaz González and Pedro Peirano, set out to design a children’s show that they themselves would want to watch – steeped in humor and political criticism, and where children wouldn’t be infantilized.2026 June 4, Andalusia K. Soloff, “Politics and puppets: The enduring appeal of ‘31 Minutos’”, in The Christian Science Monitor, Boston, Massachusetts: Christian Science Publishing Society, →ISSN...
2. (transitive) To treat (an adult) like a child.