1. past tense and past participle of proletarianise; to reduce (a person or group) to the status of a proletarian; to cause to become a member of the working class
Usage: chiefly British spelling (American: proletarianized); often used in historical or political contexts; typically describes economic or social processes affecting workers or communities

Examples

• The industrial revolution proletarianised many skilled craftspeople who lost their trades.
• Factory automation proletarianised the middle-class office workers of the 1980s.
• Economists argued that globalization had proletarianised workers in developed nations.
• The policy proletarianised formerly independent farmers by forcing them into wage labor.
• As traditional professions declined, many graduates felt proletarianised despite their education.