civilize

In a campaign season already marked by conspiracy theories and aggressive rhetoric, TikTok has announced several steps to try to civilize and secure its platform.

From New York Times ● Sep. 21, 2022

By the fifth century BCE, some of the larger villages of Macedon grew big enough to be considered cities, and elite Macedonians made efforts to civilize their country in the style of the southern Greeks.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2020

Without dogs, human beings would not have been able to civilize, as they did.

From Salon ● Nov. 10, 2019

But their aim is the same: to drag resplendent nature indoors to hyperbolize and civilize its beauty.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2018

Somewhere above, the rockets burned down to civilize a beautifully dead planet.

From "The Martian Chronicles" by Ray Bradbury

We sense early on, from Mortensen’s delicate handling of their courtship, that this isn’t some musty rehash of the trope where she civilizes him and he domesticates her.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 31, 2024

But there she is, one of the immortal characters of literature, and how can you not fall in love with somebody who civilizes savage people by telling them stories?

From New York Times ● Sep. 4, 2015

Far from revealing our barbarism, fighting civilizes us, Gottschall writes.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 15, 2015

It opened up a discussion about anonymity, pseudonymity and whether using real names civilizes the Internet.

From Forbes ● Oct. 15, 2012

Pernicious weed! whose scent the fair annoys, Unfriendly to society's chief joys: Thy worst effect is banishing for hours The sex whose presence civilizes ours.

From Familiar Quotations A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature by Bartlett, John

This is a civilized world we live in now.

From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026

Those are traits that help define a psychopath, someone who lives among us but doesn’t have the empathy and ethics necessary to behave in a civilized, or even safe, fashion.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026

It made him aware of “the fragility of civilized life” and inspired “gratitude for the decency and work ethic of the police.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. said External link “taxes are what we pay for civilized society,” suggesting we get what we pay for.

From Barron's ● Apr. 14, 2026

The pipes symbolized an orderly and civilized world beyond the control of the Nazis.

From "The Boy on the Wooden Box" by Leon Leyson

Heaney was born with a subject he often resisted, and “Digging” turns away from violence to the civilizing necessity of work.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025

Love, in Marivaux’s world, is a civilizing force — much to the fairy’s fury.

From New York Times ● Apr. 26, 2024

Without the civilizing influence of true love, the widower returns to his roots, teaching Brooke how to track, shoot and lie.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 13, 2023

The French called this aspect of imperialism “the civilizing mission.”

From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022

Cinna and Portia seem to have a civilizing effect on Haymitch and Effie.

From "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins