ˈhalf-bapˈtize, v. trans.
To baptize privately or without full rites, as a child in danger of death.
| 1836 Dickens Sk. Boz ii, He got out of bed..to half-baptize a washerwoman's child in a slop-basin. 1838 ― O. Twist ii, The child that was half-baptized, Oliver Twist, is nine years old to-day. 1875 Sussex Gloss. s.v., If you please, sir, will you be so good as to half-baptize the baby? |
So half-baptized ppl. a., baptized privately or without full rites; hence, semi-barbarous, (dial.) deficient in intelligence.
| 1795 Southey Joan of Arc ii. Wks. (1853) 16 Irish Kerns, Ruffians half-clothed, half-human, half-baptized. 1875 Sussex Gloss. s.v., You must have been half-baptized to water those flowers when the sun was full on them. |