CIVILISE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does civilise mean? 

• CIVILISE (verb)
  The verb CIVILISE has 2 senses:

1. teach or refine to be discriminative in taste or judgment

2. raise from a barbaric to a civilized state

  Familiarity information: CIVILISE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CIVILISE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they civilise    ... he / she / it civilises   
Past simple: civilised   
Past participle: civilised   
-ing form: civilising   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Teach or refine to be discriminative in taste or judgment

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

civilise; civilize; cultivate; educate; school; train

Context example:

She is well schooled in poetry

Hypernyms (to "civilise" is one way to...):

down; fine-tune; polish; refine (improve or perfect by pruning or polishing)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "civilise"):

sophisticate (make less natural or innocent)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

civilisation (the quality of excellence in thought and manners and taste)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Raise from a barbaric to a civilized state

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

civilise; civilize

Context example:

The wild child found wandering in the forest was gradually civilized

Hypernyms (to "civilise" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

civilisation (the social process whereby societies achieve an advanced stage of development and organization)

 Context examples 

I saw vessels near the shore and found myself suddenly transported back to the neighbourhood of civilised man.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

However, this confirmed my first opinion, that a people who could so far civilise brute animals, must needs excel in wisdom all the nations of the world.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

We are in a civilised land here, and we can’t have tomfoolery of this kind.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Heathens and savage tribes hold that doctrine, but Christians and civilised nations disown it.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Another great advantage proposed by this invention was, that it would serve as a universal language, to be understood in all civilised nations, whose goods and utensils are generally of the same kind, or nearly resembling, so that their uses might easily be comprehended.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Jane, I excuse you for the present: two months' grace I allow you for the full enjoyment of your new position, and for pleasing yourself with this late-found charm of relationship; but then, I hope you will begin to look beyond Moor House and Morton, and sisterly society, and the selfish calm and sensual comfort of civilised affluence.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)