Why do dictionaries not use capitalization in the beginning of their "sentences"?

Question

When I look up a dictionary, the example sentences always use small letters at the beginning of the sentence.

For examples:

exacerbate

make (a problem, bad situation, or negative feeling) worse: the exorbitant cost of land in urban areas only exacerbated the problem | the forest fire was exacerbated by the lack of rain.

Why not using capital letters in the first letter of "make", "the" and "the" above? Isn't it the rule of sentence?

Or it's just how dictionary does, so there is no need for an explanation?

Answer 1

I cannot speak for all dictionaries, but the phrases the dictionary gave you don't necessarily start a sentence, so sentence caps are unnecessary. As JR said, the dictionary is showing an example usage, not an example sentence.

e.g.

The fire lasted for four days; the forest fire was exacerbated by the lack of rain.