VULGARIZE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does vulgarize mean? 

• VULGARIZE (verb)
  The verb VULGARIZE has 3 senses:

1. cater to popular taste to make popular and present to the general public; bring into general or common use

2. debase and make vulgar

3. act in a vulgar manner

  Familiarity information: VULGARIZE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VULGARIZE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they vulgarize    ... he / she / it vulgarizes   
Past simple: vulgarized   
Past participle: vulgarized   
-ing form: vulgarizing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cater to popular taste to make popular and present to the general public; bring into general or common use

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

generalise; generalize; popularise; popularize; vulgarise; vulgarize

Context example:

Relativity Theory was vulgarized by these authors

Hypernyms (to "vulgarize" is one way to...):

broadcast; circularise; circularize; circulate; diffuse; disperse; disseminate; distribute; pass around; propagate; spread (cause to become widely known)

Verb group:

popularise; popularize (make understandable to the general public)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

vulgar (of or associated with the great masses of people)

vulgarization (the act of making something attractive to the general public)

vulgarizer (someone who makes something attractive to the general public)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Debase and make vulgar

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

vulgarise; vulgarize

Context example:

The Press has vulgarized Love and Marriage

Hypernyms (to "vulgarize" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

vulgar (lacking refinement or cultivation or taste)

vulgarization (the act of rendering something coarse and unrefined)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Act in a vulgar manner

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Synonyms:

vulgarise; vulgarize

Context example:

The drunkard tends to vulgarize

Hypernyms (to "vulgarize" is one way to...):

act; behave; do (behave in a certain manner; show a certain behavior; conduct or comport oneself)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

vulgar (lacking refinement or cultivation or taste)

 Context examples 

With much labor we got our things up the steps, and then, looking back, took one last long survey of that strange land, soon I fear to be vulgarized, the prey of hunter and prospector, but to each of us a dreamland of glamour and romance, a land where we had dared much, suffered much, and learned much—OUR land, as we shall ever fondly call it.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)