verb · 9 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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UK:/ˈmɒ.ɹə.laɪz/
Southern-England:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
CMU ARPABET:M AO1 R AH0 L AY2 Z
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
1
verb
Meaning 1
To make moral reflections (on, upon, about or over something); to regard acts and events as involving a moral.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
Examples
1589, Robert Greene, Menaphon, London: Sampson Clarke, “Arcadia,” [...] his Ladie reaching him a Marigold, he began to moralize of it thus merely. I meruaile the Poets that were so prodigall in painting the amorous affection of the Sunne to his Hyacinth, did neuer obserue the relation of loue twixt him and the Marigold:
1741, Samuel Richardson, Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded, London: S. Richardson and J. Osborn,, Volume 3, Letter 8, p. 38, [...] I shall not make an unworthy Correspondent altogether; for I can get into thy grave Way, and moralize a little now-and-then:
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
2
verb
Meaning 2
To say (something) expressing a moral reflection or judgment.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
Examples
1929, Virginia Woolf, “Geraldine and Jane” in The Common Reader, Second Series, London: The Hogarth Press, 1935, p. 191, “The more one loves, the more helpless one feels”, she moralised.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
3
verb
Meaning 3
To render moral; to correct the morals of; to give the appearance of morality to.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
4
verb
Meaning 4
To give a moral quality to; to affect the moral quality of, either for better or worse.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
Examples
1716, Thomas Browne, Christian Morals, Part 3, in Religio Medici; its sequel Christian Morals, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1844, p. 211, For since good and bad stars moralize not our actions, and neither excuse nor commend, acquit or condemn our good or bad deeds at the present or last bar [...] not celestial figures, but virtuous schemes must denominate and state our actions.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
5
verb
Meaning 5
To apply to a moral purpose; to explain in a moral sense; to draw a moral from.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
6
verb
Meaning 6
To supply with moral lessons, teachings, or examples; to lend a moral to.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
7
verb
Meaning 7
improve the morals of
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
