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catechize

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Derived from Latin catechizare, from Ancient Greek κατηχίζω (katēkhízō), from κατηχέω (katēkhéō, “to teach (orally)”), from κατά (katá, “down”) + ἠχέω (ēkhéō, “to sound, to resound”).

Pronunciation

Verb

catechize (third-person singular simple present catechizes, present participle catechizing, simple past and past participle catechized) (transitive)

  1. To give oral instruction, especially of religion; (specifically) by the formal question-and-answer method; in the Church of England and Roman Catholic Church, to teach the catechism as preparation for confirmation.
  2. To question at length.
    • 1888 September 29, Henry James, “[The Modern Warning.] Chapter V.”, in The Aspern Papers; Louisa Pallant; The Modern Warning, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 260:
      She promised herself to ascertain thoroughly, after they should be comfortably settled in the ship, the animus with which the book was to be written. She was a very good sailor and she liked to talk at sea; there her husband would not be able to escape from her, and she foresaw the manner in which she should catechise him.
    • 1910, Saki [pseudonym; Hector Hugh Munro], “The Soul of Laploshka”, in Reginald in Russia and Other Sketches, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC, page 73:
      Putting a strong American inflection into the French which I usually talked with an unmistakable British accent, I catechised the Baron as to the date of the church's building, its dimensions, and other details which an American tourist would be certain to want to know.

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