COMSTOCKERY Definition & Meaning

Comstockery

[ kuhm-stok-uh-ree, kom- ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

overzealous moral censorship of the fine arts and literature, often mistaking outspokenly honest works for salacious ones.

comstockery

/ ˈkʌmˌstɒkərɪ; ˈkɒm- /

noun

immoderate censorship on grounds of immorality

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Other 51�Թ� Forms

��ǳ�s�ٴǳ��e�� noun
��ǳ�·��ٴǳ��i·�� adjective

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51�Թ� History and Origins

Origin of Comstockery¹

First recorded in 1895–1900; after A. Comstock ( def ) + -ery

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51�Թ� History and Origins

Origin of Comstockery¹

C20: coined by G. B. Shaw (1905) after Anthony Comstock (1844–1915), US moral crusader, who founded the Society for the Suppression of Vice

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

“Comstockery is the world’s standing joke at the expense of the United States,” Shaw commented.

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“Comstockery has been given a new lease on life by this Congress,” Ms. Schroeder, who died in March, mourned at the time in a floor speech.

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George Bernard Shaw said America was suffering from “Comstockery.”

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In 1905, George Bernard Shaw, the playwright, referred to censorship-happy moralism as “Comstockery” in a letter to The New York Times.

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Yet while chiding extreme libertarianism, Selbourne veers dangerously close to Comstockery in his tsk-tsking of noise that “masquerades as music,” gender fluidity, sperm banks, bad grammar, video plagiarists and other presumed vices.

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