Fetishize
verb
To make a fetish or become obsessively focused on something, often giving it more importance or value than it actually has.
Some people tend to fetishize wealth and status.
Often appears as...
- fetishize wealth
- fetishize technology
verb
To have a very strong sexual attraction or interest in a specific body part or object.
Some individuals fetishize feet.
Often appears as...
- fetishize feet
- fetishize leather
Usage tips
Disapproving
verb
To make a fetish or become obsessively focused on something, often giving it more importance or value than it actually has.
Some people tend to fetishize wealth and status.
Often appears as...
- fetishize wealth
- fetishize technology
verb
To have a very strong sexual attraction or interest in a specific body part or object.
Some individuals fetishize feet.
Often appears as...
- fetishize feet
- fetishize leather
Usage tips
Disapproving
Definition 1 of 2
Pro Tip 1/3Excessive Importance
Used to express the idea that someone is giving too much attention to something that doesn’t deserve it.
She fetishizes brand names, thinking they define her self-worth.
Pro Tip 2/3Cultural Critique
Can be used to critique a society's priorities, such as how it may overemphasize certain ideas or objects.
The documentary showed how society often fetishizes youth and beauty.
Pro Tip 3/3Negative Connotation
Usually has a negative tone, implying that the obsessive focus isn't healthy or balanced.
It's unhealthy to fetishize work to the point of ignoring your family.
Pro Tip 1/3Excessive Importance
Used to express the idea that someone is giving too much attention to something that doesn’t deserve it.
She fetishizes brand names, thinking they define her self-worth.
Pro Tip 2/3Cultural Critique
Can be used to critique a society's priorities, such as how it may overemphasize certain ideas or objects.
The documentary showed how society often fetishizes youth and beauty.
Pro Tip 3/3Negative Connotation
Usually has a negative tone, implying that the obsessive focus isn't healthy or balanced.
It's unhealthy to fetishize work to the point of ignoring your family.
Pro Tip 1/3Excessive Importance
Used to express the idea that someone is giving too much attention to something that doesn’t deserve it.
She fetishizes brand names, thinking they define her self-worth.
Pro Tip 2/3Cultural Critique
Can be used to critique a society's priorities, such as how it may overemphasize certain ideas or objects.
The documentary showed how society often fetishizes youth and beauty.
Pro Tip 3/3Negative Connotation
Usually has a negative tone, implying that the obsessive focus isn't healthy or balanced.
It's unhealthy to fetishize work to the point of ignoring your family.
Never forget "Fetishize"
Humans forget easily. That's why you should download WordUp: Smart reminders, word games, AI practice, and much more!
Video examples
A brief history of...
Historically speaking, the public appreciation of visual art in terms other than traditional, religious or social function is a relatively new concept. Today, we fetishize the fetish, so to speak. We go to museums to see art from the ages, but our experience of it there is drastically removed from the context
Video examples
How Dolly Parton led me...
Alright, just to zoom out. What do I make of this? Well, I think there's something in here that's a clue, a way forward. As journalists, we love difference. We love to fetishize difference. But increasingly, in this confusing world, we need to be the bridge between those differences.
Video examples
A brief history of...
Historically speaking, the public appreciation of visual art in terms other than traditional, religious or social function is a relatively new concept. Today, we fetishize the fetish, so to speak. We go to museums to see art from the ages, but our experience of it there is drastically removed from the context
Video examples
How Dolly Parton led me...
Alright, just to zoom out. What do I make of this? Well, I think there's something in here that's a clue, a way forward. As journalists, we love difference. We love to fetishize difference. But increasingly, in this confusing world, we need to be the bridge between those differences.
Example 1 of 2
Quote examples
Leigh Bardugo
Israeli Author
I want to be really clear about something: I think we kind of fetishize the creative life. We have the vision of what it means to be an author, where you sit in your garret or looking out at your view and you give everything to your art and you commit fully to it. But the reality is that most of us have bills to pay.
Quote examples
David Shields
American Author
I think the core of fans' relationship is one that vacillates schizophrenically and mercurially from reverence to resentment. Fans fetishize the players' athletic genius and both deify it and demonize it; witness the way awe turns into anger whenever a player holds out or flips off the offensive coordinator.
Quote examples
Sarah Gadon
Canadian Actress
I look at scripts, and sometimes I apply theory to them. For 'Antiviral,' for example, I was reading Laura Mulvey's 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,' and it was all about the psychological process by which we fetishize the female image. It's all about scopophilia.
Quote examples
Neel Mukherjee
Indian Writer
Writing a book is as difficult or as easy as any other job. Everyone's job is difficult. So to fetishize difficulties in writing as something extra-difficult or something very privileged - I don't buy that at all.
Quote examples
Tony Kushner
American Playwright
You have a strange relationship with calamity when you're a writer: you write about it; as an artist, you objectify and fetishize it. You render life into material, and that's a creepy thing to do.
Quote examples
Phil Klay
American Writer
If we fetishize trauma as incommunicable, then survivors are trapped - unable to feel truly known by their nonmilitary friends and family.
Quote examples
Tina Fey
American Comedian
I think people fetishize glasses in general. You could put glasses on a rotting pumpkin and people would think it was sexy.
Quote examples
Jessica Stockholder
American Artist
I don't fetishize objects.
Quote examples
Leigh Bardugo
Israeli Author
I want to be really clear about something: I think we kind of fetishize the creative life. We have the vision of what it means to be an author, where you sit in your garret or looking out at your view and you give everything to your art and you commit fully to it. But the reality is that most of us have bills to pay.
Quote examples
David Shields
American Author
I think the core of fans' relationship is one that vacillates schizophrenically and mercurially from reverence to resentment. Fans fetishize the players' athletic genius and both deify it and demonize it; witness the way awe turns into anger whenever a player holds out or flips off the offensive coordinator.
Quote examples
Sarah Gadon
Canadian Actress
I look at scripts, and sometimes I apply theory to them. For 'Antiviral,' for example, I was reading Laura Mulvey's 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,' and it was all about the psychological process by which we fetishize the female image. It's all about scopophilia.
Quote examples
Neel Mukherjee
Indian Writer
Writing a book is as difficult or as easy as any other job. Everyone's job is difficult. So to fetishize difficulties in writing as something extra-difficult or something very privileged - I don't buy that at all.
Quote examples
Tony Kushner
American Playwright
You have a strange relationship with calamity when you're a writer: you write about it; as an artist, you objectify and fetishize it. You render life into material, and that's a creepy thing to do.
Quote examples
Phil Klay
American Writer
If we fetishize trauma as incommunicable, then survivors are trapped - unable to feel truly known by their nonmilitary friends and family.
Quote examples
Tina Fey
American Comedian
I think people fetishize glasses in general. You could put glasses on a rotting pumpkin and people would think it was sexy.
Quote examples
Jessica Stockholder
American Artist
I don't fetishize objects.
Example 1 of 8
WordUp Chrome Extension
As you browse the web instantly look up words you don’t know.
Get Chrome Extension