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
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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
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The plot was inspired by a Japanese news report that had deeply disturbed Woo, about a lunatic guilty of poisoning baby formula.—
Peter Debruge,
Variety,
19 Oct. 2025
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Investigators reportedly discovered evidence through online records that Gates allegedly purchased materials and attempted to carry out a plan to poison her husband.—
Julia Bonavita,
FOXNews.com,
15 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Pressing for payment could humiliate people, who often arrive with their extended families, Parmar explained, and in a community this close-knit, that could mean losing dozens of patients, including many of the Medicaid patients who keep the clinic afloat.—
Helen Ouyang,
The Atlantic,
21 Oct. 2025
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By the time the cameras stopped clicking and the newsmen flew home, Kentucky had been humiliated in the national press, the onlooker’s violence both disputed and affirmed in accounts of this day.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
16 Oct. 2025
Verb
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The guy’s ghosting of me also dehumanized him.—
Anna Holmes,
The Atlantic,
20 Oct. 2025
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It’s often used to criminalize us, dehumanize us.—
Anne Thompson,
IndieWire,
17 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Brock Lesnar's Road to WrestleMania The Beast brutalized Cena this past Saturday night and defeated him with relative ease after hitting six consecutive F-5's.—
Andrew Ravens,
MSNBC Newsweek,
25 Sep. 2025
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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
Cite this Entry
“Animalize.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/animalize. Accessed 25 Oct. 2025.
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