spiritualize

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to make a person, experience, or activity more spiritual, elevated, or concerned with the soul

   The music seemed to spiritualize the audience and lift them beyond ordinary concerns.

2. 2
   verb

   to give something a spiritual or allegorical meaning rather than a literal one

   Later commentators spiritualized the poem as an account of the soul's journey.

3. 3
   verb

   to purify from material, worldly, or corrupting influences

   The reformer hoped to spiritualize public life through service and self-discipline.

Formed in the seventeenth century from spiritual + -ize. The causative sense is literally 'make spiritual'; from it developed uses for moral purification, imaginative elevation, and interpreting a material image or text as a spiritual allegory.

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