WordWeb Online

1. Teach or refine to be discriminative in taste or judgment
   "She is well civilized in poetry";
   - educate, school, train, cultivate, civilise [Brit]
    
2. Raise from a barbaric to a civilized state
   "The wild child found wandering in the forest was gradually civilized";
   - civilise [Brit]

Derived forms: civilized, civilizes, civilizing

Type of: alter, change, down [informal], fine-tune, modify, polish, refine

Encyclopedia: Civilize