moralize

Verb

moralize (third-person singular simple present moralizes, present participle moralizing, simple past and past participle moralized)

1. (intransitive) To make moral reflections (on, upon, about or over something); to regard acts and events as involving a moral.
   • […] his Ladie reaching him a Marigold, he began to moralize of it thus merely. I meruaile the Poets that were so prodigall in painting the amorous affection of the Sunne to his Hyacinth, did neuer obserue the relation of loue twixt him and the Marigold:1589, Robert Greene, Menaphon, London: Sampson Clarke, “Arcadia,”
   • […] I shall not make an unworthy Correspondent altogether; for I can get into thy grave Way, and moralize a little now-and-then:1741, Samuel Richardson, Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded, London: S. Richardson and J. Osborn,, Volume 3, Letter 8, p. 38

   Synonyms:

   judge

2. (transitive) To say (something) expressing a moral reflection or judgment.
   • “Unless I heard the whole repeated, I cannot continue it,” she said. / “Yet it was quickly learned, ‘soon gained, soon gone,’” moralized the tutor.1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “The First Blue-Stocking”, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volume III, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, page 105
   • “The more one loves, the more helpless one feels”, she moralised.1929, Virginia Woolf, “Geraldine and Jane” in The Common Reader, Second Series, London: The Hogarth Press, 1935, p. 191
3. (transitive) To render moral; to correct the morals of; to give the appearance of morality to.
   • Let gratefull Aromatick odours burne,
     Let pious incense smoake, for the returne
     Of Great Flaminius, in whom abide
     More Art, then raised Athens to her pride,
     More civill Ethicks he containe, then may
     Well moralize all sauage India.1647, Robert Baron, Erotopaignion, or, The Cyprian Academy, London, page 61
   • In estimating the value of cotton, its capacity to excite industry among the lower classes of people […] is of high importance. It has had a large share in moralizing the poor white people of the country.1809, David Ramsay, chapter 11, in The History of South-Carolina: from Its First Settlement in 1670, to the Year 1808, volume 2, Charleston, page 449
4. (transitive) To give a moral quality to; to affect the moral quality of, either for better or worse.
   • For since good and bad stars moralize not our actions, and neither excuse nor commend, acquit or condemn our good or bad deeds at the present or last bar […] not celestial figures, but virtuous schemes must denominate and state our actions.1716, Thomas Browne, Christian Morals, Part 3, in Religio Medici; its sequel Christian Morals, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1844, p. 211
   • The attempts which are made in such [school] courses [on ‘hygiene’] to make as many physiological phenomena as possible point a moral, and to suppress the rest, are reminiscent of the analogous attempts to moralize zoology which were made by the authors of mediaeval bestiaries.1927, J. B. S. Haldane, “The Time Factor in Medicine”, in Possible Worlds and Other Essays, London: Chatto and Windus, published 1930
5. (obsolete, transitive) To apply to a moral purpose; to explain in a moral sense; to draw a moral from.
   • Did he not moralize this spectacle?c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
   • […] where the Place is obscure, and the Construction difficult, I take leave by paraphrase to give the Meaning: which is a method of times observed by the Septuagint, whose Version Moralizeth in the Greek, what was wrapp’d up in figures by the Hebrew.1654, Henry King, The Psalmes of David from the New Translation of the Bible Turned into Meter, London: Humphrey Moseley, Preface
6. (obsolete, transitive) To supply with moral lessons, teachings, or examples; to lend a moral to.
   • Kind Nature’s charities his steps attend,
     In every babbling brook he finds a friend,
     While chast’ning thoughts of sweetest use, bestowed
     By Wisdom, moralize his pensive road.1793, William Wordsworth, “Pleasures of the Pedestrian”, in Poems by William Wordsworth: including Lyrical Ballads, and the Miscellaneous Pieces of the Author, volume 1, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees...