savage Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a member of an uncivilized people
    barbarian.
  2. noun a cruelly rapacious person
    beast; wolf; brute; wildcat.
  3. verb attack brutally and fiercely
  4. verb criticize harshly or violently
    crucify; blast; pillory.
    • The press savaged the new President
    • The critics crucified the author for plagiarizing a famous passage
  5. adjective satellite (of persons or their actions) able or disposed to inflict pain or suffering
    barbarous; vicious; brutal; cruel; fell; roughshod.
    • a barbarous crime
    • brutal beatings
    • cruel tortures
    • Stalin's roughshod treatment of the kulaks
    • a savage slap
    • vicious kicks
  6. adjective satellite wild and menacing
    feral; ferine.
    • a pack of feral dogs
  7. adjective satellite without civilizing influences
    barbarian; barbaric; uncivilized; uncivilised; wild.
    • barbarian invaders
    • barbaric practices
    • a savage people
    • fighting is crude and uncivilized especially if the weapons are efficient"-Margaret Meade
    • wild tribes
  8. adjective satellite marked by extreme and violent energy
    fierce; furious; ferocious.
    • a ferocious beating
    • fierce fighting
    • a furious battle

WordNet

Sav"age adjective
Etymology
F. sauvage, OF. salvage, fr. L. silvaticus belonging to a wood, wild, fr. silva a wood. See Silvan, and cf. Sylvatic.
Definitions
  1. Of or pertaining to the forest; remote from human abodes and cultivation; in a state of nature; nature; wild; as, a savage wilderness.
  2. Wild; untamed; uncultivated; as, savage beasts.
    Cornels, and savage berries of the wood. Dryden.
  3. Uncivilized; untaught; unpolished; rude; as, savage life; savage manners.
    What nation, since the commencement of the Christian era, ever rose from savage to civilized without Christianity? E. D. Griffin.
  4. Characterized by cruelty; barbarous; fierce; ferocious; inhuman; brutal; as, a savage spirit. Syn. -- Ferocious; wild; uncultivated; untamed; untaught; uncivilized; unpolished; rude; brutish; brutal; heathenish; barbarous; cruel; inhuman; fierce; pitiless; merciless; unmerciful; atrocious. See Ferocious.
Sav"age noun
Definitions
  1. A human being in his native state of rudeness; one who is untaught; uncivilized, or without cultivation of mind or manners.
  2. A man of extreme, unfeeling, brutal cruelty; a barbarian.
Sav"age transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To make savage. R.
    Its bloodhounds, savaged by a cross of wolf. South.

Webster 1913