brutalize

Word family

bru·tal·ize (also brutalise British English) /ˈbruːtəl-aɪz/ verb [transitiveT]

1 EFFECT/INFLUENCEto affect someone so badly that they lose their normal human feelings 使残忍；使变无情

He was brutalized by his experiences in jail.

在狱中的经历使他变得冷酷无情。

2 CRUELto treat someone in a cruel or violent way 残酷对待，虐待

Demonstrators claimed they had been brutalized by police officers.

示威者称他们受到了警察的野蛮对待。

n Grammar

Brutalize is usually passive.

—brutalization /ˌbruːtl-aɪˈzeɪʃən $ -tl-ə-/ noun [uncountableU]

Examples from the Corpus

brutalize• There is something about coal mining that seems to brutalize a place.• After 75 days of being brutalized and sexually assaulted by other inmates and ignored by the prison guards, Rodney hanged himself.• Many of the prisoners were brutalized by soldiers.• The rumor quickly spread among the black soldiers that other blacks were being brutalized by the police.• Young men are often brutalized by their experiences in jail.• He had been brutalized in prison and become cynical.• Slavery brutalized its victims, but it also corrupted its masters.• Racial violence began again when law enforcement officers brutalized peaceful civil rights protestors.• Literacy can be gained by brutalizing the imagination.• Not one of the nurses apologized or indicated in any way that they had been brutalizing the patient.

bru·tal·ize verb →n GRAMMAR1

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