devulgarize

English

Alternative forms

• devulgarise (UK)

Etymology

de- +‎ vulgarize

Verb

devulgarize (third-person singular simple present devulgarizes, present participle devulgarizing, simple past and past participle devulgarized)

1. (transitive) To free from what is vulgar or common.
   • 1868, E. A. Abbott, “The Teaching of English”, in The Living Age:

     Shakespeare and Plutarch's "Lives" are very devulgarizing books.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “devulgarize”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)