Chameleonize
verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 To change colour or turn various colours; to be transformed (to suit changing circumstances). intransitive
"King by your leaue, for in your kingſhippe I muſt leaue you, and repeate how from white to redde you camelionized."
- 2 To cause to change colour or turn various colours; to transform (to suit changing circumstances). transitive
"1878, “Homœopathy and Exclusiveness,” Letter to the editor, Medical Record, 28 September, 1878, p. 257, Such a difference of opinion is passed over with a shrug of the shoulder, for some “regulars” practise empirically (clinically), and others scientifically. The “majority” and “Medical Ethics” contend that every practitioner shall sail under the colors he or she may select, but not use one which may be chameleonized to suit the individual notions and prejudices of the public at large."
- 3 To transform oneself, as if changing colour like a chameleon. reflexive
"1841, Fanny Appleton Longfellow, Letter to Isaac Appleton Jewett dated 25 January, 1841, in Edward Wagenknecht (ed.), Mrs. Longfellow: Selected Letters and Journals of Fanny Appleton Longfellow, New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1956, p. 75, […] after [reading] Virgil and Dante […] in an atmosphere trembling with eternal lamentations and on a soil drenched with unceasing showers of tears all the morning, every evening, lately, I am in a ball-room where flourishes a whip-syllabub of life, as if under our feet yawned no such realities. But I can chameleonize myself and enjoy all."
Example
More examples"King by your leaue, for in your kingſhippe I muſt leaue you, and repeate how from white to redde you camelionized."
Etymology
From chameleon + -ize.
More for "chameleonize"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.