Vulgarize

verb

verb ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To make vulgar.; To make commonplace, crass, lewd.

    "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."

  2. 2
    act in a vulgar manner wordnet
  3. 3
    To make vulgar.; To convert (religious rites) so as to use the vulgate (language of the commoners).
  4. 4
    debase and make vulgar wordnet
  5. 5
    cater to popular taste to make popular and present to the general public; bring into general or common use wordnet

Example

More 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."

Etymology

From vulgar + -ize.

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