denaturalize

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to revoke or deny a person's naturalized citizenship

   The government sought to denaturalize applicants who had obtained citizenship by fraud.

2. 2
   verb

   to make someone or something less natural or cause it to depart from its original nature

   The critic argued that rigid imitation would denaturalize the local artistic tradition.

Formed from de- ("remove, reverse") + naturalize. The older broad sense reverses naturalize as "make natural"; the legal sense specifically reverses naturalization by withdrawing citizenship previously granted to a foreign national.

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