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
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of brutalize
He was fired a few years later over allegations of brutalizing a suspect in custody.
—
Omar Jimenez, CNN Money, 26 Oct. 2025
Brock Lesnar's Road to WrestleMania The Beast brutalized Cena this past Saturday night and defeated him with relative ease after hitting six consecutive F-5's.
—Andrew Ravens, MSNBC Newsweek, 25 Sep. 2025
Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli and Gabe Kidd brutalized Ospreay, targeting the neck which he was set to have surgery on.
—Ryan Gaydos, FOXNews.com, 25 Aug. 2025
As her due date approached, she was brought to the infamous detention center Escuela de Mecánica de la Armada (Navy School of Mechanics), known as ESMA, where prisoners were brutalized.
—Sam Gillette, People.com, 8 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for brutalize
Omar Jimenez, CNN Money, 26 Oct. 2025
Brock Lesnar's Road to WrestleMania The Beast brutalized Cena this past Saturday night and defeated him with relative ease after hitting six consecutive F-5's.
—Andrew Ravens, MSNBC Newsweek, 25 Sep. 2025
Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli and Gabe Kidd brutalized Ospreay, targeting the neck which he was set to have surgery on.
—Ryan Gaydos, FOXNews.com, 25 Aug. 2025
As her due date approached, she was brought to the infamous detention center Escuela de Mecánica de la Armada (Navy School of Mechanics), known as ESMA, where prisoners were brutalized.
—Sam Gillette, People.com, 8 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for brutalize
Recent Examples of Synonyms for brutalize
Verb
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And videotaping it to humiliate them.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
21 Dec. 2025
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She had never been arrested before and felt humiliated when her mugshot was plastered all over the news after her arrest.—
Grethel Aguila,
Miami Herald,
12 Dec. 2025
Verb
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So long as a person is willing to subject himself to the abuse of the City, the City will find new and worse ways to abuse him.—
Amanda Whiting,
Vulture,
12 Jan. 2026
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Ohio State has previously settled filed by 296 individuals who alleged they were abused by Strauss, who died by suicide in 2005.—
Daniel Libit,
Sportico.com,
12 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Even searches for ethnic slurs hurled at Danish people — language that has historically crept into the American lexicon to dehumanize wartime enemies — come up thin.—
John C. Moritz,
Austin American Statesman,
18 Jan. 2026
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Punish her, dehumanize her as an example everyone can learn from.—
Sophie Gilbert,
The Atlantic,
16 Jan. 2026
Verb
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For the second game running, Omari Hutchinson was too easily bullied off the ball in a dangerous area.—
Paul Taylor,
New York Times,
10 Jan. 2026
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Though the basics are similar, the improvements and extras combine to bully its predecessor into storage, and the Roadie 4 now has pride of place in the accessories cubby of my guitar's travel case.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
9 Jan. 2026
Verb
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For part of the trial of El Chapo, the city shut down the Brooklyn Bridge; his lawyers tried to move the proceedings to Philadelphia, because the jury pool was poisoned by angry commuters.—
Zach Helfand,
New Yorker,
12 Jan. 2026
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Alice is paranoid, thinking her roommate is rearranging her shower supplies and that someone might be poisoning her food.—
Mary Ann Grossmann,
Twin Cities,
11 Jan. 2026
Verb
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The Legal Accountability Project claims circuit court executives failed to intervene when Merriam continued to mistreat staff after the first complaint.—
Edmund H. Mahony,
Hartford Courant,
1 Jan. 2026
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In its statement following his death, PETA accused Easley of mistreating the tigers under his care.—
Brian Brant,
PEOPLE,
11 Dec. 2025
Verb
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Discussions with the creative team led to the idea of showing how oppressed the animals were.—
Jazz Tangcay,
Variety,
12 Jan. 2026
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In Russia, Cuba, Iran, Belarus, and Uganda, dictatorships have carried on for decades—oppressing and killing their people, attacking their neighbors, and destabilizing their regions.—
Garry Kasparov,
The Atlantic,
10 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Still, whatever validity there is to his pain, Peter becomes a high priest of hallucination and Coon’s tortured Agnes his disciple.—
Sara Holdren,
Vulture,
9 Jan. 2026
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In Chechnya, a region in southern Russia with a predominantly Muslim population, authorities launched an open hunt for gay men—police rounded them up and tortured many of them, with some being killed.—
Mikhail Zygar,
Vanity Fair,
7 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Brutalize.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/brutalize. Accessed 21 Jan. 2026.
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