v.; also 7 basterdize. [f. BASTARD + -IZE: cf. F. abastardir, -iss-, Eng. ABASTARDIZE, and BASTARD v.]
1. trans. To declare or stigmatize as bastard.
1611. Cotgr., Abastardir, to bastardise.
1631. W. Saltonstall, Pict. Loq., E ij b. His ielous thoughts are ready to bastardize his Children.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., I. 435. To annul the marriage and bastardize the issue.
1827. Hallam, Const. Hist. (1876), I. i. 34. To bastardize the princess Mary.
fig. 1656. Trapp, Comm. Matt. xxv. 45. Moabites were bastardized and banished the beauty of holiness.
† 2. To beget bastard issue. Obs. rare.
1605. Shaks., Lear, I. ii. 144. Had the maidenliest Starre in the Firmament twinkled on my bastardizing.
3. To make degenerate, deteriorate, debase.
1587. Harmar, trans. Beza’s Serm., 142 (T.). The ground articles and points of true religion … [may] be in divers sorts … disguised and bastardized.
1601. Cornwallyes, Seneca. Feare … bastardizeth their natures, and corrupts them.
1779. Phil. Trans., LXIX. 239. Defect of the season … keeps back and bastardizes the one sort.
4. intr. To become degenerate, to deteriorate.
1878. Seeley, Stein, I. 249. Lets his army … lie idle in garrison service, where it rusts and bastardises.
