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Glite Dictionary
to ironize

to ironize

1 9.6
Say things in a way that shows the opposite of what you mean
  • verb
  • /ˈaɪəˌnaɪz/
translation icon : ironizar
  • If he has a characteristic weakness, it will be for ironizing and putting on airs, striking various poses in order to stand out from the crowd.
  • ironized readers

Examples

  • He likes to ironize his daily struggles, turning even the most frustrating moments into a joke.

  • One makes the cataclysm his enemy, while the other uses it to challenge the king's command; both responses ironize the revelation that Prospero has been controlling the storm.

    Academic text (1995)

  • So it is in many ways, the ending is the beginning, but a highly ironized beginning.

  • The incompetent reader who has to be criticized or ironized.

    Academic text (2004)

  • So that's one instance of a kind of negative symmetry, something being ironized retroactively.

  • In fact, the final chapter of Persuasion begins by ironizing the reader's anticipation of the end as a point of final sense-making.

    Academic text (2007)

  • The ethnologist's exposition is thus ironized by the beatnik's rephrased version.

    Academic text (2005)

  • Simultaneously, the narrator systematically ironizes her younger self, which problematizes the notions of genius and calling familiar to Olsson's readers through her critical writing.

    Academic text (1999)

  • The stillness of this otherwise bodiless room is ironized by the actions encouraged by the upraised hands of the figures and the cries of their slogans to buy and to drink.

    Academic text (2017)

  • While the character of Tito, the narrator, plays out male blindness, the role of Luciana, the resisting female, ironizes Tito's narcissistic ignorance of her needs.

    Academic text (1997)

Synonyms

to mock
vsto ironize
  • Offensive
209 3.4

Make fun of someone by copying them to show dislike

often adds irony or subtle mockery rather than direct imitation
to satirize
vsto ironize
9 7.2

To make fun of people or ideas to show their faults, often by using exaggeration

is simpler mockery or irony without the formal satirical intent
to lampoon
vsto ironize
8 7.7

To publicly make fun of a person or group by copying their style

is not necessarily public or aimed at public critique, more an ironic act
to wisecrack
vsto ironize
  • Informal
1 7.3

To make a short funny or sarcastic remark meant to be clever

is broader, covering ironic or mocking speech or behaviour beyond single jokes

Surface Forms

ironize infinitive
ironized past
ironized past participle
ironizing present participle
ironizes third person singular

Morphology

ironize = irony (transparent) = irony + ize

Formed by the standard verb-forming suffix '-ize' on 'irony', so the meaning 'to use/speak with irony' is directly derivable.

Etymology

Ironize comes from irony, which goes back to an old Greek word meaning 'to pretend' or 'play a part'. So to ironize is to say the opposite of what you mean or to pretend in order to make fun, and that is why it means to speak in an ironic or mocking way.