Meanings
-
1
verb
rare and offensive: to make a person intellectually dulled, degraded, or treated as though unintelligent
The essay argues that repetitive labor can cretinize workers by denying them judgment or variety.
Thesaurus
Etymology
Formed from cretin + -ize. Cretin was once a medical label and later became an insult for a person considered unintelligent; both uses are now offensive, and modern medicine uses specific diagnostic terms instead. The verb survives chiefly in critical or historical writing.