- present participle of civilize.
civilizing
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Heaney was born with a subject he often resisted, and “Digging” turns away from violence to the civilizing necessity of work.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025
Colonialism, once equated by the West with civilizing progress, became synonymous with iniquity.
From New York Times ● Dec. 10, 2023
Without the civilizing influence of true love, the widower returns to his roots, teaching Brooke how to track, shoot and lie.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 13, 2023
What did “the civilizing mission” of industrialized nations entail?
From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022
“I placed this young man with you,” she says to me in a terrible quiet voice, “in the hopes that you might provide a civilizing influence. It appears that I was gravely mistaken.”
From "Orphan Train" by Christina Baker Kline
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