dramatize, v.
(ˈdræmətaɪz)
[f. as dramatist + -ize.]
1. a. trans. To convert into a drama; to put into dramatic form, adapt for representation on the stage.
| 1780–83 [see dramatized]. 1810 Scott Fam. Lett. 22 Dec., They are busy dramatizing the Lady of the Lake here and in Dublin. 1884 Law Times 27 Sept. 358/2 The play ‘Called Back,’ dramatised from the novel of that name. |
b. absol. To write dramas.
| 1814 Sortes Horatianae 125 Scrawl, dramatize..do what ye will. 1900 Daily News 28 May 4/1 The glorious language in which Milton sang, Shakespeare dramatised, Richard Baxter prayed, and George Whitfield thundered. |
2. To describe or represent dramatically. refl. To behave melodramatically.
| 1823 Adolphus in Lockhart Scott Aug., To exert the talent of dramatizing and..representing in his own person the incidents he told of. 1894 Howells in Harper's Mag. Feb. 383 The men continue to dramatize a struggle on the floor below. 1934 H. G. Wells Exper. Autobiogr. II. viii. 620 My mother dramatized herself, indeed, but so artlessly that I rebelled against that. |
3. intr. (for pass.) To admit of dramatization.
| 1819 Scott Fam. Lett. 15 June, The present set..will not dramatize. 1836 New Monthly Mag. XLVII. 235 The story would dramatize admirably. |
4. trans. To influence by the drama. nonce-use.
| 1799 Morn. Chron. in Spirit Pub. Jrnls. (1800) III. 154 Some might take their station in the theatres, and dramatize the audience into loyalty. |
Hence ˈdramatized ppl. a., ˈdramatizing vbl. n. and ppl. a. (also fig.); also ˈdramatizable a., (Webster, 1864); ˈdramatizer, one who dramatizes.
| 1780–83 W. Tooke Russia (Webster 1828), A dramatized extract from the history of the Old and New Testaments. 1833 Westm. Rev. XVIII. 226 The dramatizer of Cooper's ‘Pilot’. a 1834 Lamb Charac. Dram. Writers, Rowley Wks. 530 Our delicacy..forbids the dramatising of distress. 1862 Merivale Rom. Emp. (1865) V. xli. 99 The dramatized histories of the English bard. 1875 Emerson Lett. & Soc. Aims Wks. (Bohn) III. 221 A sort of dramatizing talent. 1888 Mrs. H. Ward R. Elsmere II. xviii. 107 Oh, to fall at her feet, and ask her pardon before parting for ever! But no—no more posing; no more dramatizing. 1934 H. G. Wells Exper. Autobiogr. II. viii. 620 Accident threw me in my receptive years mostly among non-dramatizing systematic-minded people. |