1
as in to humiliate
to make (someone) feel or behave more like an animal than a human being
even three years in a prison camp did not brutalize him
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in to abuse
to inflict physical or emotional harm upon
Red Cross workers reported that prisoners had been brutalized
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of brutalize
Bakri is more brittle in Farah Nabulsi’s The Teacher as Basem, a Palestinian teacher in the West Bank whose support for insurgents grows after his own son dies in prison and as Israeli settlers brutalize his neighborhood.
—
Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 24 Mar. 2026
Yes, that same night, beyond the hallowed walls of Prescott’s, people all across New York were being brutalized by HIV, falling dead from AIDS.
—Literary Hub, 17 Mar. 2026
In New York, guards who brutalized prisoners or covered it up were rarely fired.
—Katie Moore, Kansas City Star, 12 Mar. 2026
Ayatollah Khamenei led a regime that brutalized its own people, launched attacks around the world for almost 40 years.
—ABC News, 1 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for brutalize
Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 24 Mar. 2026
Yes, that same night, beyond the hallowed walls of Prescott’s, people all across New York were being brutalized by HIV, falling dead from AIDS.
—Literary Hub, 17 Mar. 2026
In New York, guards who brutalized prisoners or covered it up were rarely fired.
—Katie Moore, Kansas City Star, 12 Mar. 2026
Ayatollah Khamenei led a regime that brutalized its own people, launched attacks around the world for almost 40 years.
—ABC News, 1 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for brutalize
Recent Examples of Synonyms for brutalize
Verb
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Those who don’t get the job leave diminished, sometimes humiliated, and the institution absorbs the damage quietly for years.—
Paul Hardart,
Fortune,
9 May 2026
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Blue is officially fired for injecting a patient with an unapproved drug, and in a devastating twist, he is humiliated by and forced to give his badge back to Richard in front of Catherine (Debbie Allen).—
Max Gao,
Variety,
8 May 2026
Verb
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The daughter of one of those killed in the Bondi attacks said that a year earlier she was verbally abused while carrying her baby in a Sydney shopping mall by a man who spotted her Star of David necklace.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
4 May 2026
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There will be heavy reviews/assurances that those kept in state care are treated well and not abused, as in past histories.—
Kaitlyn Schallhorn,
Oc Register,
4 May 2026
Verb
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Nor is the bishop of Rome trying to humiliate or dehumanize his opponent.—
Peter Wehner,
The Atlantic,
27 Apr. 2026
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Social media posts and comments showed an increasing use of dehumanizing language toward Muslims.—
Anisah Bagasra,
The Conversation,
17 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Baldwin will play the mayor of the town and Rose, who founded anti-cyber-bullying platform Babes Against Bullying, his daughter.—
Andreas Wiseman,
Deadline,
8 May 2026
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Scott Rudin, who was the subject of allegations of bullying that provoked an industry reckoning on abusive workplace behavior in 2021, is a producer on the revival, which has become one of the unmissable events of the season.—
Theater Critic,
Los Angeles Times,
6 May 2026
Verb
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The latter activity gives them some solid ground to plant their hooves on when George abruptly turns up dead one morning, poisoned by an unknown suspect.—
Wilson Chapman,
IndieWire,
8 May 2026
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One of us even faced an assassination plot in Canada and concluded he was poisoned in Russia for defending Iranian human rights lawyers and Russian dissidents.—
Irwin Cotler,
Time,
8 May 2026
Verb
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Activists accused the facility of mistreating the dogs that were being bred for laboratory testing.—
Alexa Herrera,
CBS News,
8 May 2026
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The Daily Mail, which obtained a copy the new lawsuit Friday, reported that Juana Delgado Soto alleges that Jenner failed to intervene to stop other staff from mistreating her.—
Martha Ross,
Mercury News,
1 May 2026
Verb
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Underlying such obvious acts of aggression lies an insidious tendency for transnational repression to flow from despots into democracies, oppressing lawyers of all nationalities in the process.—
Irwin Cotler,
Time,
8 May 2026
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Nonprofit organizations such as International Federation of Journalists, Amnesty International, and Committee to Protect Journalists advocate on behalf of unfairly jailed and oppressed journalists worldwide.—
Encyclopedia Britannica,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
7 May 2026
Verb
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In 1969 she was put in solitary confinement for 491 days and tortured.—
Kate Bartlett,
NPR,
2 May 2026
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Iranian American actor Anthony Azizi says the continuing Middle East conflict has sparked rising persecution of Iran’s Baha’i minority, including its members being jailed and tortured under the threat of execution.—
Etan Vlessing,
HollywoodReporter,
1 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Brutalize.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/brutalize. Accessed 11 May. 2026.
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