Heathenizes

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To treat or regard as irreligious or uncivilized by removing or denying established religious or cultural practices ; to convert or depict as pagan or outside the dominant faith ; to engage in the act of casting someone or something into a state associated with nonbelievers or outsiders
2. To label or transform practices, beliefs, or individuals as lacking proper religious faith or civilization ; to impose the status of paganism or unbelief upon ; to perform the action of alienating from accepted religious norms
3. To characterize or transform into a state considered to be outside conventional religious doctrine ; to cause conversion or representation as lacking sacred or cultural legitimacy ; to perform the act of branding as irreligious or barbaric

Etymology: Heathenize is an inflected form: the third-person singular of "heathenize", a verb built from "heathen" and the suffix "-ize", which turns a noun or adjective into a verb meaning to make or treat something as. "Heathen" itself came into English from Old English "hǣthen", a word that originally described people who lived on the open heath, outside the reach of Christian towns. The verb therefore means to cast a person, group, or practice as lacking proper faith or civilization, or to impose that status on them.

Synonyms: paganizes, secularizes, dechristianizes, profane, desecrate

Antonyms: christianizes, converts, sanctifies, consecrates, blesses