envowel

present singular third person envowels · US participle present envoweling · UK participle present envowelling · US participle past envoweled · US past envoweled · UK participle past envowelled · UK past envowelled · alternative emvowel

1. datedhumorousraretransitiveto replace a portion of a person's name with a dash in printing, in order to avoid libel.

   1 more example

   In this dress I intend to abuse the *** and the ***; I intend to lash not only the m―stry, but every man who hath any p―ce or p―ns―n from the g―vernm―t, or who is entrusted with any degree of power or trust under it, let his r―nk be ever so high, his f―rt―ne never so great, or his ch―r―cter never good. For this purpose I have provided myself with a quantity of Italian letter, and asterisks of all sorts. And as for all the words which I embowel, or rather envowel, I will never so mangle them but they shall be as well-known as if they retained every vowel in them. This I promise myself, that when I have any meaning they shall understand it.

   1747-1748, Henry Fielding, the Jacobite's Journal