1837 Brit. & Foreign Rev. 5 448 The total absence of poetic elevation and colouring, which by idealizing softens the pain of real sympathy into that pleasurably melancholy emotion which the fine arts ought to excite.

1878 J. R. Seeley Life & Times Stein II. 490 It sometimes excites a suspicion of a little idealising.

1908 Psychol. Rev. 15 173 A child's idealizing of his parent seems, on the whole, a good thing.

2003 M. Diana et al. in N. Levinson Outspoken x. 266 Popular culture, with its idealizing of adolescent rebellion and its endless capacity to irritate and strut.

1816 Monthly Rev. Oct. 123 Nor are they to be classed among the idealizing or embellishing poets.

1858 W. E. Gladstone Stud. Homer II. 216 The Hellenic mind..[with] its active and idealizing fancy.

1913 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 18 705 An effective love of one's neighbor is the product of a rational and idealizing faith.

1938 J. Wilcox Rel. Molière to Restoration Comedy v. 96 Alceste, like his idealizing admirers, lacks an instinct for the middle ground of common sense.

2007 A. T. Kronman Education's End iv. 186 Hope and shame are other idealizing passions.