catechize

English

Alternative forms

• (UK) catechise

Etymology

From Latin catechizare, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Ancient Greek κατηχίζειν (katēkhízein), from κατηχέω (katēkhéō, “to teach (orally)”), from κατά (katá, “down”) + ἠχέω (ēkhéō, “to sound, to resound”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkætɪkaɪz/
• IPA^(key): /ˈkatɪkaɪz/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation US: cat‧e‧chize, UK: cat‧ech‧ize

Verb

1. To give oral instruction, especially of religion; now specifically by the formal question-and-answer method; in the Church of England, to teach the catechism as preparation for confirmation.
2. To question at length.
   • 1888, Henry James, The Modern Warning:

     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, ‘The Soul of Laploshka’, Reginald in Russia:

     Putting a strong American inflection into the French which I usually talked with an unmistakeable British accent, I catechized 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.

Translations

to question at length

• Bulgarian: разпитвам (bg) (razpitvam)
• German: ausgiebig befragen, gründlich ausfragen
• Portuguese: catequisar
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: допра́шивать (ru) n (doprášivatʹ), тща́тельно (tščátelʹno) выспрашивать (vysprašivatʹ) (tščátelʼno vysprášyvatʼ)n