Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Not domesticated or cultivated; wild.
- adjective Not civilized; barbaric.
- adjective Vicious or merciless; brutal.
- adjective Characterized by or showing hostility; unforgiving.
- adjective Extreme in strength or degree.
- noun A member of a people regarded as primitive, uncivilized, brutal, or fierce.
- transitive verb To assault ferociously.
- transitive verb To attack without restraint or pity.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To make wild, barbarous, or cruel.
- To act the savage; indulge in cruel or barbarous deeds.
- Of or pertaining to the forest or wilderness.
- Possessing, characterized by, or presenting the wildness of the forest or wilderness.
- Living in the forests or wilds.
- Not domesticated; feral; wild; hence, fierce; ferocious; untamed: as, savage beasts of prey.
- Brutal; beastly.
- Living in the lowest condition of development; uncultivated and wild; uncivilized: as, savage tribes.
- Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of man in such a condition; unpolished; rude: as, savage life or manners.
- Barbarous; fierce; cruel.
- Wild or enraged as from provocation, irritation, restraint, etc.
- In heraldry, nude; naked; in blazonry, noting human figures unclothed, as the supporters of the arms of Prussia.
- Synonyms and Brutish, heathenish.
- Pitiless, merciless, unmerciful, remorseless, bloody, murderous.
- noun A wild or uncivilized human being; a member of a race or tribe in the lowest stage of development or cultivation.
- noun An unfeeling, brutal, or cruel person; a fierce or cruel man or woman, whether civilized or uncivilized; a barbarian.
- noun A wild or fierce animal.
- noun Same as
jack of the clock . Seejack .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A human being in his native state of rudeness; one who is untaught, uncivilized, or without cultivation of mind or manners.
- noun A man of extreme, unfeeling, brutal cruelty; a barbarian.
- adjective Of or pertaining to the forest; remote from human abodes and cultivation; in a state of nature; wild.
- adjective Wild; untamed; uncultivated.
- adjective Uncivilized; untaught; unpolished; rude.
- adjective Characterized by cruelty; barbarous; fierce; ferocious; inhuman; brutal.
- transitive verb rare To make savage.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
wild ; notcultivated - adjective
barbaric ; notcivilized - adjective
fierce andferocious - adjective
brutal ,vicious , ormerciless - adjective UK, slang unpleasant or unfair
- noun pejorative An
uncivilized orferal human; abarbarian . - noun figuratively A
defiant person. - verb To
attack orassault someone or somethingferociously or withoutrestraint . - verb figuratively To
criticise vehemently . - verb of an animal To
attack with theteeth - verb obsolete, transitive To make savage.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective without civilizing influences
- verb criticize harshly or violently
- verb attack brutally and fiercely
- noun a cruelly rapacious person
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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"In the estimation of niggers your garments are hideous; your legs they think elephantine, your red beard frightful, and your blue eyes savage -- _savage_! think of that."
Black Ivory Francis B. Pearson 1859
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In the picture which I have given, I have confined myself principally to the Iroquois, or Six Nations, a people who no more deserve the term savage, than the whites do that of heathen, because they have still lingering among them heathen superstitions, and many opinions and practices which deserves no better name.
Legends, Traditions, and Laws of the Iroquois, or Six Nations, and History of the Tuscarora Indians Elias Johnson
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In a statement, the Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum said torture in the troubled southern African nation was "both widespread and systematic" as evidenced by what it called the savage ill-treatment while in custody of leaders of the main labor federation arrested in Harare on Wednesday.
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The union's general-secretary Graham Rowan said earlier the protest was aimed at drawing attention to what he described as savage attacks on SBV members by mindless gangs.
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Conrad said, “So you think Washington’s use of the term savage is referring to the original L’Enfant map Serena took, and that the map will show us the way to whatever we’re supposed to find?”
The Atlantis Prophecy Thomas Greanias 2008
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I do not hold that anything happens by chance, or that the albatross is unworthy of being treated with humanity, because it acts in what you call a savage way.
The Voyages of the Ranger and Crusader And what befell their Passengers and Crews. William Henry Giles Kingston 1847
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And leading secularist Mohamed ElBaradei, the former UN nuclear watchdog chief turned dissident and presidential candidate, condemned what he called a "savage" attempt to disperse the sit-in.
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THE chief is a tall well made man, very affable and cheerful, about sixty years of age, his eyes lively and full of fire, his countenance manly and placid, yet ferocious, or what we call savage; his nose aquiline, his dress extremely simple, but his head trimmed and ornamented in the true Creek mode.
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Christian had been beaten with enough force to cause bruising on her brain, but the worst injuries, [Medical Examiner Dr. Darinka] Mileusnic-Polchan said, were sustained in what she described as a savage sexual assault.
magic-city-news.com 2010
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_extempore_, -- one of those musical efforts which persons in what we term the savage state will sometimes make when their feelings are touched by new and strange influences.
Left on Labrador or, The cruise of the Schooner-yacht 'Curlew.' as Recorded by 'Wash.' 1887
BrainyBabe commented on the word savage
"like being savaged by a dead sheep" -- British political insult
December 28, 2008