bastardize, v.
(ˈbɑːstədaɪz, -æ-)
Also 7 bastardize.
[f. bastard + -ize: cf. F. abastardir, -iss-, Eng. abastardize, and bastard v.]
1. trans. To declare or stigmatize as bastard.
| 1611 Cotgr., Abastardir, to bastardise. 1631 W. Saltonstall Pict. Loq. E ij b, His ielous thoughts are ready to bastardize his Children. 1768 Blackstone Comm. I. 435 To annul the marriage and bastardize the issue. 1827 Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) I. i. 34 To bastardize the princess Mary. |
| fig. 1656 Trapp Comm. Matt. xxv. 45 Moabites were bastardized and banished the beauty of holiness. |
† 2. To beget bastard issue.
Obs. rare.
| 1605 Shakes. Lear i. ii. 144 Had the maidenliest Starre in the Firmament twinkled on my bastardizing. |
3. To make degenerate, deteriorate, debase.
| 1587 J. Harmar tr. Beza's Serm. 142 (T.) The ground articles and points of true religion..[may] be in divers sorts..disguised and bastardized. 1601 Cornwallyes Seneca, Feare..bastardizeth their natures, and corrupts them. 1779 Phil. Trans. LXIX. 239 Defect of the season..keeps back and bastardizes the one sort. |
4. intr. To become degenerate, to deteriorate.
| 1878 Seeley Stein I. 249 Lets his army..lie idle in garrison service, where it rusts and bastardises. |