bowdlerize
- v edit by omitting or modifying parts considered indelicate
bowdlerize a novel
- Censorship is so repugnant to most moviemakers they would rather have Mondo Freudo shown in a kindergarten than let a censor bowdlerize Ulysses.
- Ives managed to talk 20th Century-Fox out of tampering with The Blue-Tail Fly, though he did have to bowdlerize his other favorite, Foggy, Foggy Dew, an old Irish ballad.
- Nor do they wish to bowdlerize the bawdier passages reproduced in the script.