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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According to other accounts, some white residents believed Makandal and his allies were behind a plot to poison the water supply in all the houses in the city of Le Cap.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
5 Jan. 2026
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In a recent study, however, researchers at Yale found that interoception helped mice avoid poisoning themselves.—
The New York Times News Service Syndicate,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
30 Dec. 2025
Verb
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And videotaping it to humiliate them.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
21 Dec. 2025
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She had never been arrested before and felt humiliated when her mugshot was plastered all over the news after her arrest.—
Grethel Aguila,
Miami Herald,
12 Dec. 2025
Verb
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What many saw as a touching moment of instinctive friendship became a spectacle that played directly into stereotypes historically used to dehumanize Black women.—
Lydia Patrick,
MSNBC Newsweek,
9 Dec. 2025
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Is it meant to be galvanizing to watch an avatar of dehumanizing capitalism get taken down a peg by an even crueler villain?—
Angie Han,
HollywoodReporter,
14 Nov. 2025
Verb
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Art the Clown likes brutalizing women.—
Alison Foreman,
IndieWire,
7 Nov. 2025
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He was fired a few years later over allegations of brutalizing a suspect in custody.—
Omar Jimenez,
CNN Money,
26 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Animalize.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/animalize. Accessed 9 Jan. 2026.
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