idealize, v.
(aɪˈdiːəlaɪz)
[f. ideal + -ize; cf. F. idéaliser (1794 in Hatz-Darm.).]
trans. To make or render ideal; to represent in an ideal form or character; to exalt to an ideal perfection or excellence.
| 1795 W. Taylor in Monthly Rev. XVIII. 535 Italy is here idealized into a terrestrial paradise. a 1834 Coleridge Shaks. Notes (1849) 9 The tragic poet idealizes his characters. 1870 H. Macmillan Bible Teach. viii. 152 Creation is reflected and idealized in the mirror of the soul. 1884 Pall Mall G. 10 Sept. 1/1 Men who have been idealized after death. |
b. absol. or intr. To represent something in an ideal form: to conceive or form an ideal or ideals.
| 1786 Maty Meiner's Hist. Relig. i. in New Rev. Feb. 62 Their [men's] natural propensity to idealize. a 1849 H. Coleridge Ess. (1851) II. 205 A portrait painter, idealise as he will, can only paint the sort of people that exist in his time. |
Hence iˈdealized ppl. a.; iˈdealizing vbl. n. and ppl. a.; also iˈdealizer, one who or that which idealizes.
| 1817 Coleridge Biog. Lit. II. xxiii. 263 The idealized figures of the Apollo Belvidere, and the Farnese Hercules. 1821 ― in Blackw. Mag. X. 257 Dared I mention the name of my Idealizer. 1858 Gladstone Homer II. 216 The Hellenic mind..[with] its active and idealizing fancy. 1869 Lecky Europ. Mor. I. xi. 293 The idealised suffering of the stage was unimpressive. 1876 Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. ii. Dante 67 There is no idealizer like unavailing regret. 1878 Seeley Stein II. 490 It sometimes excites a suspicion of a little idealising. |