idealize
Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
verb
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to consider or represent (something) as ideal
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(tr) to portray as ideal; glorify
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(intr) to form an ideal or ideals
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Conjugated Forms
Present
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has idealizedperfect 3rd person singular
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have idealizedperfect
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are idealizingprogressive
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is idealizingprogressive 3rd person singular
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idealizingparticiple
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have been idealizingperfect progressive
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idealizessingular 3rd person
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am idealizingprogressive 1st person singular
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has been idealizingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
Past
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had idealizedperfect
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had been idealizingperfect progressive
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idealizedsimple
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idealizedparticiple
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was idealizingprogressive singular
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were idealizingprogressive plural
Future
Etymology
Origin of idealize
Explanation
When you idealize something, you think of it as being much better than it really is. You might idealize your beach vacation, completely forgetting that it rained almost every day. If you idealize your favorite teacher, you imagine that he's even more wonderful than he actually is. Many people tend to idealize marriage, believing that simply being married will make them and their partners blissfully happy all the time. To idealize is to take an ordinary, flawed thing, and turn it into something ideal. In fact, ideal, or "perfect," is at the heart of idealize, with its root of the Latin idealis, or "existing in idea."
Vocabulary lists containing idealize
When Fake is Real: Young People Rebel Against Instagram, Via Instagram
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"A Village After Dark" by Kazuo Ishiguro
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It’s easy to idealize the ’60s, but I wonder how it compares to today, in terms of your ability to get things done as an activist?
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 11, 2023
A number of Googlers I spoke with framed January’s job cuts—which took place via email—as a wake-up call for Googlers who still idealize their employer.
From Slate • Feb. 9, 2023
Hornby is best known for “High Fidelity,” a peerless portrait of how a certain type of young man uses pop music to both idealize women, and carefully cultivate an emotional distance from them.
From New York Times • Jan. 25, 2023
“I am going to speak out against those who praise fascist murderers and idealize extremists. I am going to speak out against Holocaust deniers. I’m going to call those out who won’t do it.”
From Seattle Times • Jan. 12, 2023
Only I can’t seem to keep that up for too long before my natural urge to idealize goes into effect.
From "Where Things Come Back" by John Corey Whaley
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
