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
Specifically, a few decades of drought pushed the Huns to the brink, forcing them to brutalize others in pursuit of survival.
From Salon ● Dec. 24, 2022
They built a fledgling democracy with elected leaders who often failed but didn’t brutalize their people as so many regimes in the region do.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 17, 2021
“It will consume government. It will brutalize people. It will cost taxpayers millions of dollars,” he said.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 10, 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
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
A sophist is a forger, and this forger sometimes brutalizes good sense.
From The Man Who Laughs by Victor Hugo
It unfailingly changes the expression; frequently, it degrades and brutalizes the face.
From The Winning Clue by James Hay
It brutalizes the men and prevents the growth of feminine qualities, coyness among others.
From Primitive Love and Love-Stories by Henry Theophilus Finck
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
“Malcolm X’s decision to enter the mainstream of the straggle heralds a hopeful sign on the sickeningly dismal scene of brutalized, non-violent, passive resistance. ...”
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
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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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
