as in to poison
to make (someone) feel or behave more like an animal than a human being
six months of solitary living in the jungle would animalize anyone
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example 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 animalize
Sociologist Anthony Cortese found that in popular culture black women are often othered, animalized and exoticized, associating women of color with primitivity or wild sexuality.
—
Katie Edwards, Washington Post, 14 July 2017
Katie Edwards, Washington Post, 14 July 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for animalize
Verb
-
Thousands of multivitamin bottles sold on Amazon and other websites have been recalled over a risk of serious injury or death by poisoning.—
Joel Thayer,
MSNBC Newsweek,
15 Sep. 2025
-
During World War II, Husseini became a Nazi collaborator, broadcasting propaganda into the Arab world, touring death camps with his friend Heinrich Himmler, recruiting SS divisions, and hatching a plot to poison Tel Aviv’s water supply.—
Sean Durns,
The Washington Examiner,
12 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
Continually moving the goalposts or using testing to humiliate or control can cause relational harm.—
Mark Travers,
Forbes.com,
14 Sep. 2025
-
And Sacks, a PayPal Mafia member and veteran Silicon Valley investor, is just the sort of titan of industry this town routinely devours and humiliates — from Rex Tillerson to, well, Elon Musk.—
Ben Smith,
semafor.com,
8 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
Israel 'dehumanizing' Palestinian population To count as genocide, at least one of five acts must have occurred.—
Emma Farge,
USA Today,
16 Sep. 2025
-
And as social media is woven ever deeper into every corner of our lives — school, work, civic engagement, religious participation — dehumanizing images like these become harder for even the squeamish to avoid.—
Zeynep Tufekci,
Mercury News,
16 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli and Gabe Kidd brutalized Ospreay, targeting the neck which he was set to have surgery on.—
Ryan Gaydos,
FOXNews.com,
25 Aug. 2025
-
With very few exceptions, low-rent buildings are run down, services are almost impossible to obtain, and except for the fact that New Yorkers have been so brutalized by their living conditions, such housing would be uninhabitable.—
Nicholas Pileggi,
Curbed,
15 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Animalize.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/animalize. Accessed 18 Sep. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share