Obelize

verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To mark (a written or printed passage) with an obelus; to judge as spurious or doubtful.

    "All modern classicists like to display due caution before coming to a conclusion and will reluctantly obelise any words in a manuscript that resist obvious emendation before deciding that on balance one version is better than another."

Example

More examples

"All modern classicists like to display due caution before coming to a conclusion and will reluctantly obelise any words in a manuscript that resist obvious emendation before deciding that on balance one version is better than another."

Etymology

From Hellenic Ancient Greek ὀβελίζειν (obelízein), from ὀβελός (obelós, “obelus”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.