idiotize, v.
(ˈɪdɪətaɪz)
[f. as prec. + -ize; cf. Gr. ἰδιωτίζ-ειν to put into common language.]
† 1. intr. To act in a way peculiar to themselves (cf. idiotism 3 d). Obs.
| 1716 M. Davies Athen. Brit. III. Crit. Hist. 11 Foreign Calvinists..disown and condemn our Dissenters for Idiotizing as well as Schismatizing. |
2. intr. To become idiotic or stupid.
| ? a 1800 tr. Montesquieu's Pers. Lett. cix. (T.), It looks as if the heads of the greatest men idiotized, when they meet together. |
3. trans. To make idiotic, to convert into an idiot; to make a fool of, befool.
| 1831 Fraser's Mag. IV. 580 They bethought them..how they might further idiotise the public. 1841 R. Oastler Fleet Papers I. xlviii. 382 The invention..idiotizes all our former sages. 1886 T. Hardy Mayor Casterbr. xxix, Henchard stood as if idiotised. |