pragmatise

Verb

pragmatise (third-person singular simple present pragmatises, present participle pragmatising, simple past and past participle pragmatised)

1. To make real.
   • He does not, as was formerly the fashion, pragmatise mythology, i.e. simply drop the supernatural elements, and take the residuum as history; nor, on the other hand, reject it altogether, as utterly useless for historical purposes; but having endeavoured to catch the traditional belief, the...1856, Richard Holt Hutton, Walter Bagehot, The National Review - Volume 2, page 163
   • Warfare is said to engage in detailed study of the enemy and his system of operation to identify the chinks in his armour, and then to formulate a strategem to defeat him. Thus it is attempting to pragmatise spiritual warfare.2007, Russell Sharrock, Spiritual Warfare: A Struggle for Truth, →ISBN, page 309
2. To focus on the material or practical.
   • A Movement like ours, so apt to pragmatise, developed its policy in a practical way.1950, Trades Union Congress, Report of Proceedings at the Annual Trades Union Congress
   • This uncomfortable state of affairs exists because many models that are, at best, heuristic work quite well, and in science and technology we frequently pragmatise: If it works it must be right.1970 October, Edward A. Fletcher, “Fluorocarbon Combustion, Fluorine Supported Combustion Kinetics?”, in The Mechanisms of Pyrolysis, Oxidation, And Buring of Organic Materials, Proceedings of the...