demonize

verb

de·​mon·​ize ˈdē-mə-ˌnīz 

demonized; demonizing; demonizes

transitive verb

: to portray (someone or something) as evil or as worthy of contempt or blame : vilify

But the Senate hearings have a broader purpose than exposing I.R.S. sins. They are a central element in a campaign by Congressional Republicans to demonize the tax agency, already the least loved of all Government bureaucracies.

—John M. Broder

The point is not to demonize business leaders. Their reasons for not hiring make eminent sense, given the incentives of the marketplace and the imperative to remain competitive.

—Zachary Karabell

Violence in the media has become the whipping boy of choice in these hypocritical times. It's easier to demonize a movie screen than to deal with the thorny issues of crime, racism, drugs, poverty and gun control.

—Peter Travers

For those who would forge a new environmental ethic, there is a constant temptation to demonize technology and deify nature.

—Gina Maranto

demonization

ˌdē-mə-nə-ˈzā-shən 

noun

plural demonizations

In the Washington of Clinton and Gingrich, Dole and Buchanan, … the demonization of one's political foes has reached an epic frenzy.

—Stryker McGuire and David Ansen

Examples of demonize in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Still, years of worsening ties, as well as official comments and state media coverage demonizing the United States, have had an impact on Chinese public opinion. —Lily Kuo, Washington Post, 5 Apr. 2024

Maddow took issue with McDaniel’s long track record of demonizing the news media, including launching ugly attacks on NBC News journalists and MSNBC hosts. —Cnn.com Wire Service, The Mercury News, 26 Mar. 2024

During her time as chair, McDaniel repeatedly attacked the press, which has become increasingly popular in Republican circles over the last several years as Donald Trump demonizes journalists and news institutions. —Oliver Darcy, CNN, 22 Mar. 2024

Although Gladstone didn’t take home an award, her achievement as the first Native American nominee in her category will understandably be celebrated as a symbol of how far she’s come within a medium built on narratives that chronically caricatured, demonized and humiliated Native Americans. —Ann Hornaday, Washington Post, 11 Mar. 2024

She was demonized by left-wing pundits and harassed by activists who even swarmed her in a bathroom. —The Editors, National Review, 6 Mar. 2024

There was something liberating — validating even — to see an art form long demonized as vandalism, at the same time that large corporations have appropriated it, take over such a visible part of downtown. —Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 3 Feb. 2024

Along the way, he was maligned in a film, attacked with green dye and subjected to a multitude of criminal cases, all while being demonized as Western puppet. —Oleg Matsnev, New York Times, 3 Mar. 2024

To aid this consolidation, Hindu nationalists have systematically demonized India’s large Muslim minority, painting Muslims as insufficiently apologetic for the crimes of the Muslim rulers of the past and as insufficiently loyal to the India of the present. —Ramachandra Guha, Foreign Affairs, 20 Feb. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1817, in the meaning defined above