polemicize, v.
(pəʊˈlɛmɪsaɪz)
[f. polemic a. and n. + -ize.]
intr. = polemize v. Hence poˈlemicizing vbl. n.
| 1953 Encounter Nov. 49/2 But Vigolo's edition arrived just in time to save Roman literary honour, and..to polemicise against her American view of the poet. 1968 Listener 6 June 728/3 You might want to polemicise and say: ‘Hang on a minute! What about the swallowing up of small farms? What about the fact that British agriculture as a whole is subsidised by the taxpayer to the tune of something like three million pounds a year?’ The trouble is that there isn't anyone to polemicise with. 1969 A. Walicki in Ionescu & Gellner Populism 69 He sharply polemicized with Chernyshevsky and Dubroliubov, defending the spiritual heritage of the ‘superfluous men’ from the gentry. 1970 R. J. Hollingdale tr. Schopenhauer's Essays 215 The polemicizing against the assumption of a life force which is now becoming fashionable. |