rhetoricize, v.
(rɪˈtɒrɪsaɪz)
[f. rhetoric n.1 + -ize.]
a. intr. = rhetorize v. b. trans. (Chiefly in ppl. a.) To characterize with rhetoric; to make rhetorical. Also fig. Hence rheˌtoriciˈzation, the act or process of rhetoricizing.
| 1676 R. Meggott Sermon on St. Paul's Day 10 But we (as he very melancholily rhetoriciseth) are naked, impotent, and shiftless. 1932 C. S. Lewis in Essays & Stud. XVII. 62 A detailed study of the Book of Troilus would reveal this ‘rhetoricization’, if I may coin an ugly word, as the common quality of many of Chaucer's additions. 1934 T. Wood Cobbers xviii. 235 This youngster was born with a golden tongue in its mouth and was fed on rhetoricized milk. 1965 New Statesman 22 Oct. 604/1 All excellently put—though a tendency to rhetoricise is already apparent in the plea for ‘the real impenetrable human person’. 1972 G. S. Fraser in Cox & Dyson 20th-Cent. Mind. II. xi. 395 The moral stance is strong just because, unlike Lawrence's changing and always dramatized or rhetoricized moral stances, it is not assertive. |