verb
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to make or become brutal
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(tr) to treat brutally
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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brutalizationnoun
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overbrutalizationnoun
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overbrutalizeverb (used with object)
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unbrutalizeverb (used with object)
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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brutalizesimple
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brutalizessimple
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have brutalizedperfect
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has brutalizedperfect
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am brutalizingprogressive
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are brutalizingprogressive
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is brutalizingprogressive
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have been brutalizingperfect progressive
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has been brutalizingperfect progressive
Past
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brutalizedsimple
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had brutalizedperfect
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was brutalizingprogressive
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were brutalizingprogressive
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had been brutalizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of brutalize
Vocabulary lists containing brutalize
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.
See Examples For:
Whether or not he decides to appear at the trial, scheduled to begin later this year, the A.G. can use his videoed deposition testimony to brutalize him the same way Carroll’s lawyers did.
From Slate ● May 11, 2023
The Conversation asked Rashad Shabazz, a geographer and scholar of African American studies at Arizona State University, to explore the societal conditions in which Black police officers could brutalize another Black man.
From Salon ● Feb. 1, 2023
“A White House job is not a promise of an unlimited prerogative to brutalize someone who was a victim of a prior attack,” attorney Joshua Matz said.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 3, 2021
Let us hope that Taliban leaders mean it when they say they will not brutalize the population as they did before.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 17, 2021
The weight of the sand began to brutalize her shoulders.
From "The Princess Bride" by William Goldman
Any overacting brutalizes Cheever's prose; mugging is the artistic equivalent of a mugging.
From Time Magazine Archive
That hardens people, and brutalizes them, but somehow we mostly admire them and applaud them for their success against odds.
From The Quality of Mercy by William Dean Howells
It brutalizes the men and prevents the growth of feminine qualities, coyness among others.
From Primitive Love and Love-Stories by Henry Theophilus Finck
Frugality, in fact, softens character, in animals as in men; gross feeding brutalizes it.
From The Wonders of Instinct Chapters in the Psychology of Insects by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos
You must remember that such toil brutalizes a man; it makes him callous, selfish, unfeeling necessarily.
From The Arena Volume 4, No. 20, July, 1891 by B. O. (Benjamin Orange) Flower
Wiener responded that “trans women are also brutalized in this country ... and cisgender women are brutalized in this country, and we have to protect the safety of all women.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2026
This is not the first time I have encountered a situation where the hapless staff find themselves brutalized by loud, idiotic, or culturally discordant music.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 15, 2025
This is about as much of a review of “All’s Fair” worth venturing at this point, since pretty much every critic has brutalized the show.
From Salon ● Nov. 6, 2025
When, in the mid-20th century, President Dwight Eisenhower’s “mighty network of highways” spread its tentacles across the landscape, it brutalized nature.
From Slate ● May 25, 2024
The teachers and children here were not as brutalized as in the old school.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
In a few seconds the CrossWave had squirted to its top speed of 55 mph and was skipping across the gentle swells in a blaring, brutalizing ecstasy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2026
Dahlia Lithwick: These were incredibly consequential gut punches, two more in a long sequence of brutalizing cases.
From Slate ● Jun. 25, 2026
In an interview with the New York Times, he said he hopes the Revolutionary Guard will simply “surrender” to the opposition forces it was brutalizing only a month ago.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 2, 2026
Los Angeles built off the momentum, brutalizing Arizona with eight straight designed runs to start off a 75-yard touchdown drive to open the third quarter.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 16, 2023
Three thousand children crowded into this ugly brutalizing school that had facilities for only one thousand.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
