Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To make French in character or quality.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make French; infect with French tastes, manners, or turns of expression.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To make French; to infect or imbue with the manners or tastes of the French; to Gallicize.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To make (something) more French in appearance or character.
  • verb : (intransitive) To become more French.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb make French in appearance or character
  • verb become French in appearance or character

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French + -i- + -fy.

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Examples

  • As it develops the idea is to "Frenchify" the village.

    Latest news, breaking news, current news, UK news, world news, celebrity news, politics news 2010

  • January 8th, 2009 at 4: 12 pm not giving in to the temptation to Frenchify the English Language

    Matthew Yglesias » Defense Subcabinet Taking Shape 2009

  • Could this be an ominous sign for Barack Obama denoting the fate of his egalitarian plans to Europeanize and Frenchify our capitalist country and make everything green?

    Roger L. Simon » Nostradamus on the Day of the Massachusetts Election 2010

  • As individuals, families, and whole communities emigrate, they bring with them their eating habits and traditions, yet over time must and do change ( "Americanize", "Frenchify") their cuisine, adapting to available ingredients, modernizing to fit a new lifestyle.

    Jamie Schler: Football, Food and Nationality 2010

  • In France the name is Les Jouets C'est Nous, but customers Frenchify the English roughly as "toiyz air uze."

    The World 2008

  • In Spain, a spokesman for a coalition of truckdrivers, farmers, fishermen and taxi drivers threatened to "Frenchify the conflict."

    Fuel And Fury 2008

  • In France the name is Les Jouets C'est Nous, but customers Frenchify the English roughly as "toiyz air uze."

    The World 2008

  • When I slip into ‘English pronunciation mode’ halfway through a phrase, people sometimes get confused, so I tend to chicken out and Frenchify the thing.

    caramel shoe shoe 2005

  • Frenchify themselves; the only things yet wanting are bags and swords, with which at least I have seen no one walking publicly, but I am told they are worn at court.

    Travels in England in 1782 2004

  • "My husband," she said, "Mr. Pownal, tries to Frenchify me a little, sometimes, and I am obliged to indulge him, he is generally so good; but he will never succeed in making anything else out of me than a plain Yankee woman."

    The Lost Hunter A Tale of Early Times John Turvill Adams

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