as in barbarian
a man with crude manners and habits and outmoded attitudes
married a caveman who spends all his free time swigging beer and watching sports on TV
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Recent Examples of caveman
Similarly, compare the lengthy, ostensibly mundane (but actually hypnotic) passages among the cavemen and astronauts in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey with the purely functional way that Stanton presents similar scenes here.
—
Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 30 Jan. 2026
The fork-tender caveman-size shank is blanketed in sautéed endive and a bright lemon-egg-dill sauce.
—Tara Massouleh McCay, Southern Living, 4 Jan. 2026
Two slack-jawed, bare- foot drummers are wailing a caveman beat in unison—their syncopation and their short, efficient haircuts mark them as obvious members of a cult.
—Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 28 Aug. 2025
Then language itself breaks apart into letters and sounds, grunted like cavemen incanting around a campfire.
—Theater Critic, San Francisco Chronicle, 15 Nov. 2024
See All Example Sentences for caveman
Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 30 Jan. 2026
The fork-tender caveman-size shank is blanketed in sautéed endive and a bright lemon-egg-dill sauce.
—Tara Massouleh McCay, Southern Living, 4 Jan. 2026
Two slack-jawed, bare- foot drummers are wailing a caveman beat in unison—their syncopation and their short, efficient haircuts mark them as obvious members of a cult.
—Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 28 Aug. 2025
Then language itself breaks apart into letters and sounds, grunted like cavemen incanting around a campfire.
—Theater Critic, San Francisco Chronicle, 15 Nov. 2024
See All Example Sentences for caveman
Recent Examples of Synonyms for caveman
Noun
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In the reboot, Russell Crowe plays Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez, the warrior first played by Connery, and Dave Bautista is The Kurgan, Brown’s brutal barbarian from the first movie.—
Jordan Moreau,
Variety,
16 Apr. 2026
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In most academic histories of European imperialism written in this century, the Europeans are the barbarians, killing and raping and looting on an unprecedented scale.—
David A. Bell,
The New York Review of Books,
19 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Costa Mesa resident Laura Lee Yourex, 63, who bragged on social media about registering her dog to vote and subsequently cast ballots in the animal’s name, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.—
Andrew J. Campa,
Los Angeles Times,
23 Apr. 2026
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Always armed, as younger siblings ought to be, with endless animal facts, my brother continues to explain how whales and humans both evolved from the same four-legged mammal some 65 million years ago.—
Hannah Towey,
Condé Nast Traveler,
22 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Among the highlights is a chance to set foot on the coral island of Rurutu, with troglodyte caves and hiking routes.—
Chrissie McClatchie,
Travel + Leisure,
29 Jan. 2026
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Many wonders made the list, including royal burial grounds in Egypt, an Indonesian archipelago of 1,500 islands and Turkish cliffs formerly inhabited by Bronze Age troglodytes (cave dwellers).—
John Metcalfe,
Mercury News,
24 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Caveman.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/caveman. Accessed 29 Apr. 2026.
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