intellectualize, v.
(ɪntɪˈlɛktjuːəlaɪz)
[f. intellectual a. + -ize.]
1. trans. To render intellectual; to give an intellectual character or quality to.
| c 1819 Coleridge in Rem. (1836) II. 131 Shakespeare..brings forward no subject which he does not moralize or intellectualize. 1821 Blackw. Mag. X. 525 It makes literature popular, and refines and intellectualizes life. 1877 E. Caird Philos. Kant ii. xiii. 506 Leibnitz intellectualised perception just as Locke sensualised the conceptions of the understanding. |
| absol. 1843 Blackw. Mag. LIII. 594 The bent of Sir Joshua's mind was to elevate, to dignify, to intellectualize. |
b. intr. for refl. To become intellectual.
| 1897 A. Birrell in Daily News 8 Nov. 6/7 If they considered the characteristics of the poetry of that day and its progress down to the present time, he thought they could not fail to see that it had intellectualised a great deal. |
2. intr. [after
moralize.] To exercise the intellect; to talk or write intellectually; to reason, philosophize.
| 1827 Blackw. Mag. XXI. 516 Yet could I sit and moralize, and intellectualize, for hours at this window. |
Hence
inteˈllectualized ppl. a.,
inteˈllectualizing vbl. n. and ppl. a.| 1829 Southey Sir T. More II. 368 Whatever may be pleaded for its soothing and intellectualizing effects. 1831 Blackw. Mag. XXX. 345 The march-of-mind mechanics, the intellectualized artificers. 1854 E. G. Holland Mem. Jos. Badger iv. 46 This intellectualizing on great vital facts. 1881 Shairp Asp. Poetry vii. 202 One sentiment, one emotion, simple, passionate, unalloyed with intellectualising or analysis. |