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
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
Heads of foreign intelligence agencies recalled visiting his office and seeing a photograph of Nazi soldiers brutalizing Dagan’s grandfather on the wall.
—Yossi Melman, ProPublica, 7 Aug. 2025
The Undertaker and Big Boss Man brutalized each other in a Hell in a Cell match.
—Carl Lamarre, Billboard, 5 Aug. 2025
Ventura wrapped her testimony nearly a year to the day after CNN published security footage of Combs brutalizing her in a hotel hallway in 2016.
—Jami Ganz, New York Daily News, 28 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for brutalize
Sam Gillette, People.com, 8 Aug. 2025
Heads of foreign intelligence agencies recalled visiting his office and seeing a photograph of Nazi soldiers brutalizing Dagan’s grandfather on the wall.
—Yossi Melman, ProPublica, 7 Aug. 2025
The Undertaker and Big Boss Man brutalized each other in a Hell in a Cell match.
—Carl Lamarre, Billboard, 5 Aug. 2025
Ventura wrapped her testimony nearly a year to the day after CNN published security footage of Combs brutalizing her in a hotel hallway in 2016.
—Jami Ganz, New York Daily News, 28 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for brutalize
Recent Examples of Synonyms for brutalize
Verb
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There was this huge peak between 2000 and about 2018 where there was a decentralized anti-Fascist movement that’s responsible for Richard Spencer going home, for Matthew Heimbach being humiliated.—
Fiction Non Fiction,
Literary Hub,
23 Oct. 2025
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Pressing for payment could humiliate people, who often arrive with their extended families, Parmar explained, and in a community this close-knit, that could mean losing dozens of patients, including many of the Medicaid patients who keep the clinic afloat.—
Helen Ouyang,
The Atlantic,
21 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Duffy has said that air traffic controllers who abuse their sick time during the shutdown could be fired.—
Preston Fore,
Fortune,
25 Oct. 2025
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He is accused of luring a young girl into his van parked in the church’s parking lot or to the church’s basement to abuse the girl over and over during a seven-year period, according to the release.—
Ryanne Mena,
Oc Register,
25 Oct. 2025
Verb
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The guy’s ghosting of me also dehumanized him.—
Anna Holmes,
The Atlantic,
20 Oct. 2025
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It’s often used to criminalize us, dehumanize us.—
Anne Thompson,
IndieWire,
17 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Cipher bullies other characters across the season about their powers, but because of Andre and Polarity’s degenerative abilities, this underscores the eugenics behind his beliefs.—
Jackie Strause,
HollywoodReporter,
24 Oct. 2025
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He was wrapped up in a high-profile bullying scandal during the 2013 season.—
Ryan Gaydos,
FOXNews.com,
22 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Leawood police fielded nearly 400 food-poisoning complaints and conducted about 130 interviews, a volume that briefly crashed the department’s records system, according to the Johnson County Post, KSHB 41 and KCTV5.—
Christina Coulter,
PEOPLE,
28 Oct. 2025
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Chloe then baked a cake poisoned with oleander leaves killing the owner’s wife and some children.—
Noreen Kompanik,
Boston Herald,
26 Oct. 2025
Verb
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They are mistreated, raped, killed.—
Karl Ove Knausgaard,
New Yorker,
21 Oct. 2025
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There have been multiple reports of children being mistreated during enforcement operations.—
Billal Rahman,
MSNBC Newsweek,
21 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Our systems were built to oppress people of color.—
The Editorial Board,
Oc Register,
19 Oct. 2025
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The men are seen as misogynistic, and the women are oppressed.—
Deena ElGenaidi,
PEOPLE,
11 Oct. 2025
Verb
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In another film with a less happy outcome, the woman who claims to be the amnesiac’s wife is an impostor who ends up torturing him.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
24 Oct. 2025
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Khaled was briefly transferred to Ofer Prison, where Adnan al-Bursh, an orthopedic surgeon who once led Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, had died in 2024, after being tortured.—
Mosab Abu Toha,
New Yorker,
24 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Brutalize.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/brutalize. Accessed 29 Oct. 2025.
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