- edit by omitting or modifying parts considered indelicate; "bowdlerize a novel"
- (bowdlerizer) expurgator: a person who edits a text by removing obscene or offensive words or passages; "Thomas Bowdler was a famous expurgator"
- (bowdlerization) written material that has been bowdlerized
- Expurgation is a form of censorship which involves purging anything deemed noxious or offensive, usually from an artistic work.
- To remove those parts of a text considered offensive, vulgar, or otherwise unseemly
- (bowdlerization) The practice of censorship by publication of expurgated texts. This practice got its name from English editor Thomas Bowdler (1854-1825) who published altered editions (especially of Shakespeare's works).
- To expurgate a book. After Thomas Bowdler, an English physician (1754-1825) who published editions of Shakespeare and others in which he removed "those words and expressions ... which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family".
- (from Thomas Bowdler, who hacked up Shakespeare in the 18th century) to censor or edit in a heavy-handed manner. A bowdlerized folk song is all dressed up in its Sunday best, ready for presentation to the delicate sensibilities of the general public. ...
- I looked deep into her Rocky Mountains bowdlerize and professed my undying love.