Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Humanize

Humanize , transitive verb

[Compare French humaniser.]

1.
To render human or humane; to soften; to make gentle by overcoming cruel dispositions and rude habits; to refine or civilize.
Was it the business of magic to humanize our natures with compassion? — Addison
2.
To give a human character or expression to.
Humanized divinities. — Caird
3.
(Medicine) To convert into something human or belonging to man; as, to humanize vaccine lymph.

Humanize , intransitive verb

To become or be made more humane; to become civilized; to be ameliorated.
By the original law of nations, war and extirpation were the punishment of injury. Humanizing by degrees, it admitted slavery instead of death; a further step was the exchange of prisoners instead of slavery. — Franklin