ANIMALIZE Synonyms: 33 Similar and Opposite Words

animalize

verb

ˈa-nə-mə-ˌlīz

Definition of animalize

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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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

Recent Examples of Synonyms for animalize

Verb

Morison’s followers called themselves Hygeists and attacked physicians as a monopoly that bled and poisoned its patients, which was not inaccurate in the 1830s.

— Jim Downs, STAT, 30 Oct. 2026
Two young men were arraigned Wednesday for fentanyl distribution conspiracy after a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology was fatally poisoned and another nearly died.

— Lisa Rozner, CBS News, 28 Oct. 2026

Definition of poison

Verb

From the very start, the students assigned as guards went on cruel power trips and repeatedly humiliated — if not psychologically tortured — the inmates, to the point that some of the prisoners suffered nervous breakdowns.

— Frank Landymore, Futurism, 29 Oct. 2026
The Packers come off an angry loss while the Panthers were humiliated on Sunday.

— Alex Zietlow, Charlotte Observer, 29 Oct. 2026

Definition of humiliate

Verb

Casting Robinson as a monster dehumanizes a man who lived with severe disabilities, and his family still lives with that legacy.

— Jeffrey Tolbert, The Conversation, 28 Oct. 2026
Their partnership fractured over Gilpin's refusal to keep delivering dehumanizing racial slurs written into the script, a dispute that ultimately led to Gilpin being replaced by a young Paul Robeson when the production went overseas.

— La'Tasha Givens, CBS News, 22 Oct. 2026

Definition of dehumanize

Verb

But critics have warned the gloves will give ICE another weapon to intimidate and brutalize people even as the agency is under fire for excessive force that has left a trail of deaths and injuries across the nation.

— ABC News, ABC News, 6 Oct. 2026
Allegations of abuse, inmates being brutalized by jailers, and dire conditions have plagued the facility for years, leading some county leaders, former sheriffs and civil rights advocates to call for the jail to be closed.

— James Queally, Los Angeles Times, 9 Sep. 2026

Definition of brutalize

Browse Nearby Words

animality

animalize

animalized

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“Animalize.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/animalize. Accessed 8 Nov. 2026.

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Synonyms of animalize

verb

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