Dictionary

bachelorize en · VERB

Etymology

From bachelor + -ize.

Meanings

1. To make into a bachelor; to deprive of a spouse.
   • Some of the newly bachelorized men were directed to reside in an apartment building built specifically to house ten or twelve of these divorcees, all scrambling to prove themselves obedient enough to "get new assignments" or maybe, if they were truly optimistic, to get their old families back. 2009, Jason Williams, Anthus Williams, Zero Chance: Power of Love — Love of Power, page 204:
   • To eradicate all domestic and patriotic sympathies with home and "their own, their native land," and in order to have in them a militia that would feel and fight for him alone, the Pope bachelorized the whole ministry about the termination of the eleventh century. 1859, Walter Scott, The messiahship, or, Great demonstration, page 131:
   • Nick also wrote that Elena bachelorized him for four weeks last spring when she journeyed to Honduras to visit family and friends. 1994, Stevens Indicator - Volume 111, Issue 1, page xx:
2. To confer a bachelor's degree on.
   • Mr. Sater wishes it distinctly understood that he belongs to the class of '95 and was rightfully bachelorized therein, but legally adopted by '97. 1916, Ohio State University. Alumni Association, The Ohio State University Monthly - Volume 8, page 23:
   • as if Sancho were anybody they pleased, and not that very Sancho Panza handed about in print all the world over, as Sampson Carrasco told me, who, at least, has been bachelorized at Salamanca ; 1856, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Adventures of Don Quixote de la Mancha, page 429:
3. To make or become typical of a bachelor.
   • Eleven months after being widowed I decided it was time to bachelorize my home. 2014, Richard R. Pariseau, Events in the Life of an Ordinary Man, page 283:
   • I suppose though your feelings have become so bachelorized that you can scarcely realize my pleasure. 2011, Etta Degering, McGuffey: The Greatest Forgotten Man, page 77:
   • Man needs woman's refining care to keep him from becoming bachelorized. 1859, George Francis Train, Spread-Eagleism, page 50:
   • My living room is what you'd expect, hardwood floors, simple grassy-brown furniture, oversized television, a fireplace. A former married home that's been “bachelorized,” according to Grant's wife, Audrey. 2004, David Ellis, Life Sentence, page 140:
4. To live without neither spouse nor children; to live alone or with other single people.
   • Why shouldn't we two take a house and bachelorize? 1908, The Wide World Magazine, page 494.:
   • The boy was no longer dependent upon his father—he could bachelorize with other lads or go into lodgings. 1923, New Zealand. Parliament, Parliamentary Debates. House of Representatives:
   • They of course live very cheaply, because these communities are composed of men bachelorizing together, they have no wives or children to support, as women are not allowed to leave China. 1887, Taken in: Being a Sketch of New Zealand Life, page 132:
5. To live the life of a bachelor; to socialize without a wife.
   • In the same town a country squire, a member of the county society, a scion of an old and honorable family, was guilty of the indiscretion of marrying a schoolteacher. He can lunch and club and bachelorize with any gentleman in the county, but society closes its doors absolutely upon his unfortunate wife ; and she is shut up to herself, her husband and her children. 1882, L.A., “Glimpses of Modern England”, in New Outlook, volume 26, number 6, page 66:
   • “You trifler!” Mrs. Armstrong was meanwhile saying. “I want you to talk seriously on this subject. It is high time that you solemnly attended to it. Do you mean to bachelorize your life out? […]" 1878 July, “Jenny Gridley's Concession”, in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, volume 57, number 338:
   • Eventually he agreed to 'bachelorize off comfortably guided by the wind of his own daily will', going to Dumbleton, Oxford and then London. 2010, Jenny Uglow, Elizabeth Gaskell:

Forms