0 to try to make someone or a group of people seem as if they are evil:
The Nazis used racist propaganda in an attempt to demonize the Jews.
1 to try to make someone or a group of people seem completely evil:
They tend to beatify the woman and demonize the author.
Tariff reformers demonized free trade as a policy favouring narrow financial interests above producers.
The characters or relationships thus take on these associations, which come with specific valuations along a scale of positive to negative, lionized to demonized.
I enjoyed the way he presents the various positions of many historical figures and movements in relatively sympathetic terms, rather than demonizing or deifying these actors.
Herodotus began that process when he demonized some foreign tribes while mythologizing others.
I am said to "downplay liberalism's own role" in exclusionary practices by failing to recognize that liberal language has been used to demonize many who threatened those in power.
Vindiciae, contra tyrannos is not an appeal to what adversaries demonized as the ' many-headed monster ' to take up arms against the ruler deemed tyrannical.
He was idolized and demonized as few other rulers have been, and our image of his character is confused by the hatred or goodwill of the parties involved.
