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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Prior to foreign hunters visiting Uruguay and providing a financial incentive to keep the birds’ populations healthy, ducks were often poisoned en masse because they were seen as little more than crop raiders.—
Chris Dorsey,
Forbes.com,
30 June 2025
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Has sports gambling poisoned the relationship between athletes and fans?—
Gabrielle Starr,
Boston Herald,
27 June 2025
Verb
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Then two of his classmates did something magical. 'And I was humiliated again' The story Griffin started to tell began in first grade just after his family moved from one part of his suburban New York town to another, and Griffin was the new kid in school.—
Brad Schmitt,
The Tennessean,
2 July 2025
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Why risk thousands of dollars to be humiliated and possibly denied entry?—
MSNBC Newsweek,
MSNBC Newsweek,
13 June 2025
Verb
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They are dehumanized, and they're stripped away from their rights.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
3 July 2025
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In other words, one of the two travelers was seen as a human being with rights to live freely and make their own decisions, to be treated with dignity and care; the other was either infantilized at best or completely dehumanized.—
Nuri Kino,
MSNBC Newsweek,
19 June 2025
Verb
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The system that is now targeting and brutalizing immigrants of color has a long history of targeting and brutalizing Black, brown, and Indigenous communities across this country.—
Nicholas Creel,
MSNBC Newsweek,
12 June 2025
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Musk is a man who grew up under Apartheid in South Africa, where Black South Africans were brutalized for decades.—
Bea L. Hines,
Miami Herald,
28 Mar. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Animalize.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/animalize. Accessed 19 Jul. 2025.
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