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Verb: civilize  'si-vu,lI
  1. Teach or refine to be discriminative in taste or judgment
    "She is well civilized in poetry";
    - educate, school, train, cultivate, civilise [Brit]
     
  2. Raise from a barbaric to a civilized state
    "The wild child found wandering in the forest was gradually civilized";
    - civilise [Brit]

Derived forms: civilized, civilizes, civilizing

Type of: alter, change, down [informal], fine-tune, modify, polish, refine

Encyclopedia: Civilize