Definition

1. Verb:
   • To debase through carnal gratification: To lower the quality or moral character of something by indulging in or emphasizing physical, especially sexual, pleasures.
   • To ascribe to an origin in sensation: To attribute the nature or existence of something purely to physical senses or bodily experience.
   • To represent materialistically, as in a painting or a sculpture: To depict something in a way that emphasizes its physical, worldly, or sensual aspects, often at the expense of its spiritual or intellectual qualities.

Usage Examples

• Verb:
  • The director's adaptation was criticized for attempting to carnalize the spiritual themes of the novel.
  • Some philosophers argue that certain schools of thought carnalize human emotions, reducing them to mere chemical reactions.
  • The artist chose to carnalize the figure, focusing on the texture of flesh and muscle rather than the subject's inner life.

Advanced Usage

• "to carnalize desire": to interpret or treat desire as a purely physical phenomenon.
  • The theory seeks to carnalize desire, stripping it of any romantic or transcendent meaning.

Variants and Related Words

• Carnal (adj): relating to physical, especially sexual, needs and activities.
  • carnal desires
• Carnalization (n): the act or process of carnalizing.
  • The carnalization of sacred imagery was controversial.

Synonyms

• Sensualize: to make sensual; to attribute to the senses.
• Debase: to reduce in quality or value; to degrade.
• Materialize: to represent in a physical or material form.

Antonyms

• Spiritualize: to make spiritual; to attribute to the spirit or soul.
• Elevate: to raise to a higher level, especially in moral or intellectual terms.

Verb

1. debase through carnal gratification
2. ascribe to an origin in sensation
3. represent materialistically, as in a painting or a sculpture