platitudinize
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Verb edit
platitudinize (third-person singular simple present platitudinizes, present participle platitudinizing, simple past and past participle platitudinized)
- (intransitive) To utter one or more platitudes; to make obvious, trivial, or clichéd remarks concerning a topic.
- 1894 July 24, “An Undenominational Mission: Outspokenness in the Pulpit”, in The Age, Australia, retrieved 7 October 2011, page 5:
- He does not attempt lofty flights of eloquence or try to disguise thought under ponderous platitudinising sentences.
- 1928, R. Austin Freeman, As a Thief in the Night[1], House of Stratus, published 2001, →ISBN, page 139:
- If we keep our knowledge strictly to ourselves we know exactly how we stand, and that if there has been any leakage, it had been from some other source. But I need not platitudinize to an experienced and learned counsel.
- 2008 February 20, Maxie Zeus, “Glass Fleet”, in www.tunezone.net, retrieved 7 October 2011:
- The people in this show don't talk like normal people—they lecture, they argue, they negotiate, they strategize, they philosophize, they platitudinize, they deliver speeches about destiny, liberty, and bravery.
- (transitive) To express as or reduce to one or more clichés or truisms.
- 1842, Solomon Ludwig Steinheim, “On the Perennial and the Ephemeral in Judaism”, in Daniel H. Frank et al., editors, The Jewish Philosophy Reader, published 2000, →ISBN, page 402:
- Mendelssohn had misunderstood, platitudinized, and misinterpreted the holy concept of revelation.
- 1962, Philip Roth, Letting Go[2], Random House, published 1997, →ISBN:
- “It's better to have to struggle when you're young, I think, than when you're older,” she platitudinized.
- 2008 April 25, Simon Jenkins, “The White House race is a catalogue of misspeaking”, in The Guardian, UK, retrieved 7 October 2011:
- A modern campaign, not just in America, is so fine-tuned, so honed and platitudinised, that mistakes are the only way of bringing it into focus.
Synonyms edit
- (transitive: express as a cliché): trivialize
Derived terms edit
References edit
- “platitudinize”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.