Word.ws English Dictionary

Timonize

Timonize verb: to behave as a misanthrope.

Verb

Timonize (third-person singular simple present Timonizes, present participle Timonizing, simple past and past participle Timonized)

  1. (intransitive) To behave as a misanthrope.
    • I should be tempted to Timonize, and clap a Satyr upon our whole Species.1713, William Darrell, The Gentleman Instructed, 5th edition
  2. (transitive) To cause (someone) to slide into bitter misanthropy, into Timonism.
    • And it may well be believed, that after the wonderful vital world-revelation so suddenly made to Pierre at the Meadows—a revelation which, at moments, in some certain things, fairly Timonized him—he had not failed to clutch with peculiar nervous detestation and contempt that ample parcel...1852, Herman Melville, Pierre: or, The Ambiguities, Harper & Brothers, page 348
    • Lawrence's progressive alienation from his countrymen and finally from humanity – as it were, the "Timonizing" process that overcame him – went hand in hand with his estrangement from Russell.1983, Michael L. Ross, "Lawrence's letters", in Russell: the Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies, volume 3, number 1 (Summer 1983), page 58

Forms of Timonize

third-person singular presentTimonizes
present participleTimonizing
past participleTimonized
pastTimonized
alternative formTimonise

Origin of Timonize

From Timon + -ize, after the 5th-century-BCE person Timon of Athens (as described by Plutarch, Lucian, and Aristophanes), possibly by way of William Shakespeare's play Timon of Athens (c. 1607). Used intransitively by William Darrell in his book The Gentleman Instructed (1713), and transitively by Herman Melville in his novel Pierre (1852).

Words formed from Timonize

Questions about Timonize

What does Timonize mean?
Timonize means to behave as a misanthrope.
What part of speech is Timonize?
Timonize is a verb.
What is the past tense of Timonize?
The past tense of Timonize is Timonized.

Words near Timonize in the dictionary

  1. Timonist
  2. Timonists
  3. Timonium
  4. Timonization
  5. Timonizations
  6. Timonize
  7. Timonized
  8. Timonizes
  9. Timonizing
  10. timophilia
  11. timoprazole

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Timonize (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.

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