grimthorpe means to renovate an old building or structure in a lavish and expensive, yet tasteless fashion which spoils its original beauty. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 90 out of 100.
Why this word is great
GRIMTHORPE — [Verb] To renovate an old building in an expensive, heavy-handed, and tasteless manner, damaging its original character. From the title of Edmund Beckett, 1st Baron Grimthorpe (1816–1905), whose controversial restoration of St Albans Cathedral exemplified the practice. Unlike “restore” (which implies a careful, scholarly return to authenticity) or “renovate” (a neutral term for improvement), to grimthorpe is to impose one’s own grandiose vision with philistine confidence. It is the gleam of modern cement smothering ancient stone, the replacement of delicate stone tracery with blunt, industrial plate glass, and the installation of garish, electrically lit fittings where simple sconces once hung—a testament to the tyranny of new money over old memory, ensuring a building’s survival by erasing the reason anyone cared for it in the first place.
verb
- To renovate an old building or structure in a lavish and expensive, yet tasteless fashion which spoils its original beauty.“"Look, just because this junky train has been grimthorped doesn't mean that I have to sit and listen to you two psychopaths read through the encyclopedia of death," Natalia scolded.”