bowdlerize means to remove or alter those parts of a text considered offensive, vulgar, or otherwise unseemly. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 82 out of 100.
bowdlerize is pronounced /ˈbaʊd.ləˌɹaɪz/.
Why “bowdlerize” is a great word
BOWDLERIZE — [Verb] To remove or alter words, passages, or scenes considered offensive, vulgar, or indelicate from a text. From the surname Bowdler (Thomas Bowdler, 1754–1825) + -ize (verb-forming suffix). Coined in the early 19th century, with first attested use around 1836, after his expurgated 1818 edition of Shakespeare's works. Unlike expurgate, a clinical term for removal, or censor, an act of authority for political aims, to bowdlerize is to neuter with a prim, domestic gentility. It is the Victorian hand placing fig leaves on statues, the school edition where “bosom” becomes “heart,” and the tedious, sanitized story told in a lamplit parlor—a well-meaning violence against the rude, vital mess of life.
verb
- To remove or alter those parts of a text considered offensive, vulgar, or otherwise unseemly.“The bowdlerized version of the novel, while free of vulgarity, was also free of flavor.”