Vulgarize

Alternative forms

• vulgarise non-Oxford British spelling

Full definition of vulgarize

Verb

1. To express or re-express something in a base, common, or lewd manner; to make something commonplace; to make something vulgar.
• 1915: Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-pubeng?specfile=/texts/english/modeng/publicsearch/modengpub.o2w&act=surround&offset=751091324&tag=Woolf,+Virginia,+1882-1941:+The+Voyage+Out,+1915&query=+vulgarise&id=WooVoya"Yes," said Mr. Flushing. "And in my opinion," he continued, "the absence of population to which Hirst objects is precisely the significant touch. You must admit, Hirst, that a little Italian town even would vulgarise the whole scene, would detract from the vastness — the sense of elemental grandeur."

Synonyms

• debase
• dumb down

Antonyms

• ennoble