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Glite Dictionary
😠 To make less human 🐾 To make like an animal
to animalize

to animalize

9.7
Make someone cruel and act without human feelings
  • verb
  • /ˈænɪməˌlaɪz/
  • Offensive
translation icon : deshumanizar
  • Political propaganda sometimes aims to animalize the enemy in the public's eyes.

Examples

  • The harsh treatment began to animalize the prisoners.

  • War can animalize even the most gentle of people.

  • The cruel conditions tended to animalize the prisoners over time.

  • Don't let this situation animalize you!

  • The harsh environment seemed to animalize the once gentle people, making them ruthless in their struggle for survival.

  • In the war zone, constant violence can animalize soldiers, stripping them of their empathy and compassion.

  • Some media portrayals can animalize victims, reducing them to their most primal instincts rather than acknowledging their humanity.

Synonyms

to degrade
vsto animalize
55 5.1

To treat someone so they feel ashamed or less respected

works toward making someone unfeeling and beastlike rather than simply disrespected
to brutalize
vsto animalize
  • Offensive
34 7.7

Treat someone cruelly with violence or make them numb to suffering

makes people unfeeling and beastlike rather than only physically violent
to objectify
vsto animalize
  • Offensive
30 7.5

To treat someone as a thing, ignoring their feelings and rights

deprives human qualities by making someone brutal, not only impersonal
to dehumanize
vsto animalize
  • Formal
24 7.5

To treat a person as if they are not human and take away their dignity

focuses more on making people brutal and unfeeling rather than only denying dignity
to depersonalize
vsto animalize
  • US
1 7.5

Treat a person or thing as an object and remove personal qualities

removes human feeling more extremely, creating brutality rather than mere impersonality
to cauterize
vsto animalize
  • US
1 8.9

To make someone less able to feel sadness, guilt, or pity

removes human warmth by making people brutal rather than only emotionless
to bestialize
vsto animalize
  • NSFW
9.9

Make a person or group lose human feelings and act like a cruel animal

has identical meaning but uses different wording
to barbarize
vsto animalize
9.5

To cause people to act in a violent or rude way

pushes toward loss of human feeling and gentleness rather than mere rudeness
to objectivize
vsto animalize
  • Offensive
8.9

To treat people as things and ignore their feelings

moves beyond object treatment to active cruelty and loss of humanity
to robotize
vsto animalize
  • US
8.0

Make people act in a very automatic way without feeling

creates brutal, beastlike insensitivity rather than only mechanical behaviour

Antonyms

to humanize
25 4.8

To make something kinder and more caring toward people

How Human

to humanize
25 4.8
to objectify
  • Offensive
30 7.5
to animalize
  • Offensive
9.7
to dehumanize
  • Formal
24 7.5
to brutalize
  • Offensive
34 7.7

Surface Forms

animalize infinitive
animalized past
animalized past participle
animalizing present participle
animalizes third person singular

Morphology

animalize = animal (semi-transparent) = animal + ize

The formation is regular ('animal' + '-ize'), but the sense 'to deprive of human qualities' is a figurative extension rather than a literal change into an animal.

Etymology

Animalize comes from animal and Latin anima meaning 'breath' or 'life'. So to animalize a person is to make them seem like an animal, taking away their human qualities and making them look cruel or unfeeling.