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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Despite evidence that the two got along well enough, rumors spread in Vienna after Mozart’s death that Salieri had poisoned him.—
Michael Schulman,
New Yorker,
18 May 2026
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Boys State team Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss are behind Teenage Wasteland, which revisits the story of a group of teenagers in upstate New York, who in the early 1990s make a film that uncovers a conspiracy that is poisoning their community.—
Mia Galuppo,
HollywoodReporter,
14 May 2026
Verb
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In another case, a witness described discovering the body of a man whose genitals had been severed, lying beside the body of a woman holding them, in what the report described as an apparent effort to degrade and humiliate the victims.—
Amelie Botbol,
FOXNews.com,
14 May 2026
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Those who don’t get the job leave diminished, sometimes humiliated, and the institution absorbs the damage quietly for years.—
Paul Hardart,
Fortune,
9 May 2026
Verb
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Hate speech uses feelings, emotions and attitudes that seek to dehumanize individuals or groups.—
Nathalie Japkowicz,
The Conversation,
18 May 2026
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In particular, when politicians use demonizing or dehumanizing rhetoric to attack their opponents— for example, using words that depict their opponents as subhuman— this fosters extremism and helps motivate extremists to hurt their opponents physically.—
James Piazza,
Twin Cities,
30 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Now eighteen of those 37 residents are filing complaints under the Federal Tort Claims Act, saying they were unlawfully arrested and brutalized by federal agents during the military-style raid.—
Sara Tenenbaum,
CBS News,
13 May 2026
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Enslaved people were often punished, beaten, or further brutalized for showing emotion, grieving openly or resisting in visible ways.—
Lisa Deaderick,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
2 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Animalize.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/animalize. Accessed 23 May. 2026.
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