CIVILIZE

Pronunciation (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does civilize mean? 

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

1. train to be discriminative in taste or judgment
2. raise from a barbaric to a civilized state

  Familiarity information: CIVILIZE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CIVILIZE (verb)

Meaning:

Train to be discriminative in taste or judgment

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

civilise; civilize; school; cultivate; educate; train

Context examples:

Cultivate your musical taste / Train your tastebuds / 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

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