civilize

as in to cultivate

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Examples Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of civilize The United Kingdom’s nineteenth-century civilizing mission, although rarely mentioned in Stern’s work, was an article of faith at home and in the empire. Caroline Elkins, Foreign Affairs, 22 Aug. 2023 Colonialism, once equated by the West with civilizing progress, became synonymous with iniquity. Roger Cohen, New York Times, 10 Dec. 2023 The transition from raw wood to finished object also speaks to traditional ideas of civilizing — something education is supposed to do — and to humans’ vast debt to nature. Mark Jenkins, Washington Post, 14 July 2023 Advertisement The history of human-nonhuman relations in cities is as old as cities themselves, but urban dwellers and ecologists have often missed this story because cities are supposed to be civilized, tame, the opposite of wild. Kate Brown, Washington Post, 26 June 2023 See all Example Sentences for civilize 

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“Civilize.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/civilize. Accessed 30 Dec. 2024.

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