Skip to main content
to prejudice

to prejudice

33 6.1
To make someone form an unfair opinion before they know enough
  • verb
  • /ˈprɛdʒədɪs/
translation icon : prejuzgar
  • New collections should be sampled, processed, and curated following protocols that facilitate multiple uses without prejudicing unanticipated future uses.
  • unduly prejudice the outcome

So they're not, you know, they're not, you know, prejudicing where the questions are going to go.

Examples

  • I mean, you have no reason to lie here today, no reason to say anything that might prejudice this jury against my client.

  • You can return to working from home any time, without prejudicing your standing with the company.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • Such outbursts will only prejudice your case.

  • But you won't prejudice her against me, will you?

  • l mustn't prejudice my experiment.

  • But I assure you that your reticence will not prejudice us against you.

  • The central judicial inquiry is whether a relevant group has been prejudiced by its exclusion from the political process.

    Academic text (1996)
  • The northern view of America took the "poor, socially backward, and racially prejudiced South" as America's "heretic" or "exception."

    Academic text (1993)
  • Finally, interviewer bias and recording errors do not prejudice the information (Clover and Balsley, 1984, p. 125).

    Academic text (1997)
  • He did not want to prejudice the jury before they heard all the evidence.

Synonyms

to prejudge
vsto prejudice
11 6.7

To form an opinion about a person or situation before you know all the facts

involves influencing others to reach that early opinion
to bias
vsto prejudice
6 4.9

To make someone have an unfair opinion

is specifically about forming opinions before enough information
to prepossess
vsto prejudice
1 9.9

To influence someone beforehand so they have a positive opinion

involves shaping opinion early in a negative or unfair way

Idioms

To kill someone secretly and without pity

How Influential

to smear
55 6.1
to prejudice
33 6.1
to bias
6 4.9
influence
430 3.4
to suggest
1.6

Surface Forms

prejudice infinitive
prejudiced past
prejudiced past participle
prejudicing present participle
prejudices third person singular

Morphology

prejudice = judge (semi-transparent) = pre + judice

The verb can be parsed as 'pre-' + 'judge' (to cause someone to be judged beforehand), but the surface form and slightly different nuance ('influence' rather than simply 'judge') reduce full transparency.

Etymology

The verb prejudice comes from pre- 'before' and judicium 'judgment', linked to the word judge. To prejudice someone is to make them 'judge before' they have enough information, so it means to unfairly influence what they think.