Library / English Dictionary

    CIVILIZED

    Pronunciation (US): Play  (GB): Play

     I. (adjective) 

    Sense 1

    Meaning:

    Having a high state of culture and development both social and technologicalplay

    Example:

    terrorist acts that shocked the civilized world

    Synonyms:

    civilised; civilized

    Classified under:

    Adjectives

    Similar:

    advanced ((of societies) highly developed especially in technology or industry)

    civil (of or in a condition of social order)

    humane (showing evidence of moral and intellectual advancement)

    Also:

    educated (possessing an education (especially having more than average knowledge))

    refined ((used of persons and their behavior) cultivated and genteel)

    Antonym:

    noncivilized (not having a high state of culture and social development)

    Sense 2

    Meaning:

    Marked by refinement in taste and mannersplay

    Example:

    polite society

    Synonyms:

    civilised; civilized; cultivated; cultured; genteel; polite

    Classified under:

    Adjectives

    Similar:

    refined ((used of persons and their behavior) cultivated and genteel)

     II. (verb) 

    Sense 1

    Past simple / past participle of the verb civilize

    Credits

     Context examples: 

    Such impressions must be entertainingly novel to the civilized person.

    (Martin Eden, by Jack London)

    It was a dark and evil-appearing thing, that hut, not fit for aught better than swine in a civilized land; but for us, who had known the misery of the open boat, it was a snug little habitation.

    (The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

    Civilized, he could have died for a moral consideration, say the defence of Judge Miller’s riding-whip; but the completeness of his decivilization was now evidenced by his ability to flee from the defence of a moral consideration and so save his hide.

    (The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

    Add to this, the pleasure of seeing the various revolutions of states and empires; the changes in the lower and upper world; ancient cities in ruins, and obscure villages become the seats of kings; famous rivers lessening into shallow brooks; the ocean leaving one coast dry, and overwhelming another; the discovery of many countries yet unknown; barbarity overrunning the politest nations, and the most barbarous become civilized.

    (Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

    But, you see, the Land of Oz has never been civilized, for we are cut off from all the rest of the world.

    (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

    He remembered it was at this table, at which he now sneered and was so often bored, that he had first eaten with civilized beings in what he had imagined was an atmosphere of high culture and refinement.

    (Martin Eden, by Jack London)

    When I thought of my family, my friends, my countrymen, or the human race in general, I considered them, as they really were, Yahoos in shape and disposition, perhaps a little more civilized, and qualified with the gift of speech; but making no other use of reason, than to improve and multiply those vices whereof their brethren in this country had only the share that nature allotted them.

    (Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)


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