English Dictionary

CIVILIZE

Pronunciation (US): Play  (GB): Play

IPA (US): 

 Dictionary entry overview: What does civilize mean? 

CIVILIZE (verb)
  The verb CIVILIZE has 2 senses:

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

2. raise from a barbaric to a civilized stateplay

  Familiarity information: CIVILIZE used as a verb is rare.


 Dictionary entry details 


CIVILIZE (verb)

 Conjugation: 
Present simple: I / you / we / they civilize  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation ... he / she / it civilizes  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation
Past simple: civilized  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation
Past participle: civilized  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation
-ing form: civilizing  Listen to US pronunciation  Listen to GB pronunciation


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 "civilize" 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 "civilize"):

sophisticate (make less natural or innocent)

Sentence frames:

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

Derivation:

civilization (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 "civilize" is one way to...):

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

Sentence frames:

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

Derivation:

civilization (a society in an advanced state of social development (e.g., with complex legal and political and religious organizations))


 Context examples 


He was a civilized man, that was what he was, shoulder to shoulder, at dinner, with people he had read about in books.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Then she looked up and said, "I do not know where Kansas is, for I have never heard that country mentioned before. But tell me, is it a civilized country?"

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

A more civilized or more effeminate generation, however, had refused to be pent up in such a cellar, and the hall with its neighboring chambers had been added for their accommodation.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Years have elapsed, since I had an opportunity of ocularly perusing the lineaments, now familiar to the imaginations of a considerable portion of the civilized world.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The youth of the race seemed burgeoning in me, over-civilized man that I was, and I lived for myself the old hunting days and forest nights of my remote and forgotten ancestry.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

That little boys and girls should be tormented, said Henry, is what no one at all acquainted with human nature in a civilized state can deny; but in behalf of our most distinguished historians, I must observe that they might well be offended at being supposed to have no higher aim, and that by their method and style, they are perfectly well qualified to torment readers of the most advanced reason and mature time of life.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

If a prince sends forces into a nation, where the people are poor and ignorant, he may lawfully put half of them to death, and make slaves of the rest, in order to civilize and reduce them from their barbarous way of living.

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

Civilized, he could have died for a moral consideration, say the defence of Judge Miller’s riding-whip; but the completeness of his decivilization was now evidenced by his ability to flee from the defence of a moral consideration and so save his hide.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Very particularly would I thank Senhor Penalosa and other officials of the Brazilian Government for the special arrangements by which we were helped upon our way, and Senhor Pereira of Para, to whose forethought we owe the complete outfit for a decent appearance in the civilized world which we found ready for us at that town.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Such impressions must be entertainingly novel to the civilized person.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)



 Learn English with... Proverbs 
"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." (English proverb)

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." (Maimonides)

"Be aware of the idiot, for he is like an old dress. Every time you patch it, the wind will tear it back again." (Arabic proverb)

"Dogs don't eat dogs." (Czech proverb)



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