moralization
(mɒrəlaɪˈzeɪʃən)
[ad. late L. mōrālīzātiōn-em, f. mōrālīzāre to moralize. Cf. mod.F. moralisation.]
The action of moralizing.
1. a. Moral interpretation; a moralizing commentary (of or upon a book of Scripture, etc.). b. Indulgence in moral reflection; a moralizing discourse.
| c 1420 Lydg. Assembly of Gods 860 Moralizacion of Holy Scripture. 1509 Hawes Past. Pleas. v. (Percy Soc.) 24 Who knewe gramer wythout impediment Shoulde perfytely have intelleccion Of a lytterall cense and moralyzacion. 1531 Elyot Gov. i. xxvi, If the players haue radde the moralization of the chesse. 1599 Thynne Animadv. (1875) 74 The learned molinet, in his moralizatione of that Romant. 1641 Baker Chron. (1674) 179/2 William Wallis..who made a Book of Moralizations upon Ovid's Metamorphosis. 1795 R. Anderson Johnson 201 These compositions..evince..that happy art of moralization, by which he gives to well-known incidents the grace of novelty and the force of instruction. 1820 Retrospective Rev. II. 5 [In Sidney's Arcadia] there is perceptible an air..of melancholy yet not gloomy moralization. 1846 Wright Ess. Mid. Ages II. xii. 62 In the thirteenth century these stories with moralizations were already used extensively by the monks. |
2. The action of making moral or more moral; the process of becoming moral.
| 1848 Tait's Mag. XV. 325 None ever laboured more for their happiness and moralization. 1879 H. Spencer Data of Ethics vii. §46. 127 The sense of duty or moral obligation..will diminish as fast as moralization increases. 1884 Ch. Reformer 201 Those who would work at the moralization of our literature. 1892 Montefiore Hibbert Lect. ii. 101 The moralization of Yahveh's character was by no means completed at the close of the pre-prophetic period. |