civilise

[US]/'sivilaiz/
[UK]/ˈsɪvəˌlaɪz/
Frequency: Very High

Translation

vt. educate; refine; make civilized;
vi. become a civilized society.
Word Forms
Present Participlecivilising
Past Tensecivilised
Past Participlecivilised
Third Person Singularcivilises
Pluralcivilises

Phrases & Collocations

civilised society

Real-world Examples

The first deals with the civilising forces of the future.

Source: Haida Gaobule

The Belgian Congo joined other European colonies in Africa where wanton extraction was to be replaced by a supposedly civilising mission.

Source: The Economist (Summary)

A people in the latter stages of contamination by the civilising mission, a people consumed by the European society Gauguin thought he had left behind.

Source: BBC documentary "Civilization"

In the early 1990s he described himself as an “advocate of civilisation, definer of civilisation, teacher of the rules of civilisation… leader (possibly) of the civilising forces.”

Source: The Economist - International

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.

Source: Gulliver's Travels (Original Version)

They civilise their food by cooking it and they also civilised the food in a sense by cutting it into small pieces and making it very elegant and by banishing the brutality of knives to the kitchen.

Source: Financial Times Podcast

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