Definitions

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  • verb Third-person singular simple present indicative form of civilise.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • It promotes the freest intercourse between man and man, and thus civilises what we call the

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • Aujourd'hui, le point de vue du Quebec est respecte a Ottawa et les echanges entre les deux gouvernements sont civilises.

    The Challenges of Change 1980

  • This is what we did not find among other people, and may be owing to the remains of Christianity which was once planted here by a Dutch missionary of Protestants, and it is a testimony of what I have often observed, viz. that the Christian religion always civilises the people, and reforms their manners, where it is received, whether it works saving effects upon them or no.

    The Further Adventures Of Robinson Crusoe Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731. Robinson Crusoe 1958

  • In exact proportion to its vigour, it wins over former enemies, civilises the barbarian, and even tames the viper, when the eye is masterful and sympathetic enough to dispel hatred and fear.

    The Life of Reason George Santayana 1907

  • But to sit for an hour or two each evening in quiet, orderly enjoyment, with graceful things about one, talking of whatever is pleasant -- how it civilises!

    Eve's Ransom George Gissing 1880

  • The exclusively French culture in vogue at the Court of Catherine assumed a more cosmopolitan colouring, and permeated downwards till all who had any pretensions to being civilises spoke French with tolerable fluency and possessed at least a superficial acquaintance with the literature of Western Europe.

    Russia Donald Mackenzie Wallace 1880

  • It promotes the freest intercourse between man and man, and thus civilises what we call the "lower orders": in no Moslem land, from Morocco to China, do we find the brutals without manners or morals which are bred by

    Arabian nights. English Anonymous 1855

  • England fills the world and civilises the world with her redundant population, and all her colonies flourish, and remind you of a swarm of bees which have just left the old hive and are busy in providing for themselves.

    Borneo and the Indian Archipelago with drawings of costume and scenery Frank Marryat 1840

  • This is what we did not find among other people, and may be owing to the remains of Christianity which was once planted here by a Dutch missionary of Protestants, and it is a testimony of what I have often observed, viz. that the Christian religion always civilises the people, and reforms their manners, where it is received, whether it works saving effects upon them or no.

    The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe 1719

  • Dutch missionary of Protestants, and it is a testimony of what I have often observed, viz. that the Christian religion always civilises the people, and reforms their manners, where it is received, whether it works saving effects upon them or no.

    The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe 1696

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