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

Swapan Dasgupta, a conservative journalist and former BJP lawmaker, told me that Modi had made use of Hindutva not just to demonize his enemies but to mobilize Indians politically and to deepen the country’s democracy. —Robert F. Worth, The Atlantic, 2 Jan. 2025

Pierre Poilievre tries to avoid demonizing immigrants the way Donald Trump did. —Hazlitt, 25 Dec. 2024

Government censorship, scam accounts, celebrity impersonation, propaganda and a user revolt over a journalist accused of demonizing trans people — these are just some of the hurdles faced by the nascent social media platform Bluesky. —Kevin Collier, NBC News, 22 Dec. 2024

Wicked is also a show about the quiet, insidious rise of a fascist movement that seeks to demonize the intelligent, speaking Animals of Oz, blame them for everything wrong in society, and destroy them by (literally) taking away their voices. —Robert Lang, Deadline, 13 Dec. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1817, in the meaning defined above