Dictionary

brutalize en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• [ˈbɹʉː.ɾə.lɑez] (Australia)
• /ˈbɹʉːtəlaɪz/ (Australia)
• audio Wisconsin
• /ˈbɹutəlaɪz/ (Canada, General-American)
• [ˈbɹu.ɾə.laɪz] (Canada, General-American)
• /ˈbɹuːtəlaɪz/ (UK)

Etymology

Etymology tree English brutal Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō)bor. Late Latin -izōder. Middle French -iserbor. Middle English -isen English -ize English brutalize From brutal + -ize.

Meanings

1. (alt-of, alternative) Alternative spelling of brutalise.
   alt of brutalise
   • It was reserved for Christians to torture bread, the staff of life, bread for which children in whole districts wail, bread, the gift of pasture to the poor, bread, for want of which thousands of our fellow beings annually perish by famine; it was reserved for Christians to torture the material of bread by fire, to create a chemical and maddening poison, burning up the brain and brutalizing the soul, and producing evils to humanity, in comparison of which, war, pestilence, and famine, cease to be evils. 1831 July 15, “Of the Blood”, in Western Journal of Health, volume 4, number 1, L. B. Lincoln, page 38:
   • The subconscious activities are not rationalized and humanized, they are in fact more brutalized than ever, inasmuch as under the aegis of military law and under the tacit understanding that necessity knows no law, there is no pity and no mercy in war. 1919, Boris Sidis, The Source and Aim of Human Progress:

Forms

Deriveds

unbrutalize · brutalization · unbrutalized · rebrutalize · brutalizer