MORALIZE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Moralize

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/mˈɔrəlˌaɪz/ Listen

verb

Moralize v. t. (past & past part. moralized; pres. part. moralizing)

1.

To apply to a moral purpose; to explain in a moral sense; to draw a moral from. "This fable is moralized in a common proverb." "Did he not moralize this spectacle?"

2.

To furnish with moral lessons, teachings, or examples; to lend a moral to. "While chastening thoughts of sweetest use, bestowed By Wisdom, moralize his pensive road."

3.

To render moral; to correct the morals of. "It had a large share in moralizing the poor white people of the country."

4.

To give a moral quality to; to affect the moral quality of, either for better or worse. "Good and bad stars moralize not our actions."

Moralize v. i.

1.

To make moral reflections; to regard acts and events as involving a moral.

2.

To lecture to a person in a manner asserting moral principles.

Synonyms: sermonize, preachify, moralise.

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Etymology of 'Moralize'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Moralize" Quotes from Famous Books

... that never cop'd with stranger eyes, Could pick no meaning from their parling looks, Nor read the subtle-shining secrecies Writ in the glassy margents of such books; She touch'd no unknown baits, nor fear'd no hooks; Nor could she moralize his wanton sight, More than his eyes ...

— The Rape of Lucrece • William Shakespeare [Collins edition]

... the old well-remembered landing-place, and she finds herself so near, so very near her lost home. How precious are such moments—how few we have in life! They are created from our very sorrows; without our cares our joys would be less lively. But we have no time to moralize. Catharine flies with the speed of a young fawn to climb the cliff-like shoulder of that steep bank; and now; out of breath, she stands at the threshold of her log-house. How neat and nice it looks ...

— Lost in the Backwoods • Catharine Parr Traill

... actions and passions of life almost. He takes upon himself to be the week-day preacher, so to speak. Accordingly, as he finds, and speaks, and feels the truth best we regard him, esteem him—sometimes love him. And, as his business is to mark other people's lives and peculiarities, we moralize upon his life when he is gone—and yesterday's preacher becomes the text ...

— Harvard Classics Volume 28 - Essays English and American • Various

... to more mundane things, to moralize at last upon the waiter's fate and the folly of quarrelling with our lot in life. It is interesting to learn from Fitzgerald that the Cock's plump head-waiter read the poem, but disappointing to know that his only remark on the performance was, "Had Mr. Tennyson dined oftener ...

— Inns and Taverns of Old London • Henry C. Shelley

... extremest verge. He is most wonderful in his last half-hidden smile or frown; by that flash of the moment of parting the one that sees it shall be encouraged or terrified afterward for many years. The greatest poet does not moralize or make applications of morals—he knows the soul. The soul has that measureless pride which consists in never acknowledging any lessons or deductions but its own. But it has sympathy as measureless as its pride, and the one balances the other, and neither can stretch too far ...

— Complete Prose Works - Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy • Walt Whitman

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