[syn: spiritualize, spiritualise]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Spiritualize \Spir"it*u*al*ize\, v. t. [imp. & p. p.
Spiritualized; p. pr. & vb. n. Spiritualizing.] [Cf. F.
spiritualiser.]
1. To refine intellectiually or morally; to purify from the
corrupting influence of the world; to give a spiritual
character or tendency to; as, to spiritualize soul.
[1913 Webster]
This seen in the clear air, and the whole
spiritualized by endless recollections, fills the
eye and the heart more forcibly than I can find
words to say. --Carlyle.
[1913 Webster]
2. To give a spiritual meaning to; to take in a spiritual
sense; -- opposed to literalize.
[1913 Webster]
3. (Old Chem.) To extract spirit from; also, to convert into,
or impregnate with, spirit.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
spiritualize
v 1: give a spiritual meaning to; read in a spiritual sense
[syn: spiritualize, spiritualise] [ant: literalise,
literalize]
2: elevate or idealize, in allusion to Christ's transfiguration
[syn: transfigure, glorify, spiritualize]
3: purify from the corrupting influences of the world; "During
his stay at the ashram he was spiritualized" [syn:
spiritualize, spiritualise]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
42 Moby Thesaurus words for "spiritualize":
attenuate, bolt, clarify, clear, decrassify, dematerialize,
depurate, disembody, disincarnate, distill, edulcorate, elute,
enervate, essentialize, etherealize, extract, filter, filtrate,
idealize, immaterialize, insubstantialize, leach, lixiviate,
percolate, purify, rarefy, rectify, refine, sap, screen, separate,
sieve, sift, spiritize, strain, sublimate, sublime, subtilize, try,
unsubstantialize, weaken, winnow