Standard Lemma guide

bastardize

verb · 5 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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  • General-American: /ˈbæstɚdaɪz/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

verb

Meaning 1

To claim or demonstrate that someone is a bastard, or illegitimate.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: British, English, Oxford, US

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

verb

Meaning 2

To reduce from a higher to a lower state, such as by removing refined elements or introducing debased elements; to debase.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: British, English, Oxford, US

Examples

  • The simplified word processor is a less-functional, bastardized version of the full program.
  • 2017, Douglas Charles Kane, Beren and Lúthien (2017) by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien, in Journal of Tolkien Research, Volume 4, Issue 2, Article 5, The third potential audience is the general public at large, who either never has read any of Tolkien’s books or perhaps read The Lord of the Rings and/or The Hobbit long ago, but whose knowledge about Tolkien’s created secondary universe comes, if at all, mostly from seeing Peter Jackson’s bastardized adaptations of The Lord of the Rings and/or The Hobbit.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: butcher, debase, mongrelize, sophisticate, abase, adulter, adulterate, adulterize, alloy, balderdash, corrupt, bastardize, dash, dilute, embase

Antonyms: none provided

3

verb

Meaning 3

To beget out of wedlock.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: British, English, Oxford, US

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

verb

Meaning 4

declare a child to be illegitimate

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: bastardise

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: declare, adjudge, hold

5

verb

Meaning 5

change something so that its value declines; for example, art forms

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: bastardise

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: corrupt, pervert, subvert, demoralize, demoralise, debauch, debase, profane, vitiate, deprave, misdirect

History

Etymology

Etymology tree English bastard Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íďďō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō)bor. Late Latin -izōder. Middle French -iserbor. Middle English -isen English -ize English bastardize From bastard + -ize.