barbaric
/bɑːˈbarɪk
/adjective
1Savagely cruel: he carried out barbaric acts in the name of war...
- The area is deathly quiet, except for the sound of pelting rain and the soft voice of our guide, calmly and precisely detailing acts of barbaric savagery which still beggar the imagination.
- If those who have the power to change this law have listened to my story, then I hope they will see that the law is cruel, barbaric and inhumane.
- He subjected the 27-year-old mother to a savage, barbaric, and brutal ordeal.
Synonyms
brutal, barbarous, brutish, bestial, savage, vicious, fierce, ferocious, wicked, cruel, nasty, ruthless, remorseless, merciless, villainous, murderous, heinous, nefarious, monstrous, base, low, low-down, vile, inhuman, infernal, dark, black, black-hearted, fiendish, hellish, diabolical, ghastly, horrible
2Primitive; unsophisticated: the barbaric splendour he found in civilizations since destroyed...
- All my children have been engaged in this right now, though they are biased about it being primitive, barbaric and a bit too demanding.
- It is seen as barbaric, irrational, primitive and sexist.
- The three on the left are angular distortions of Classical figures, while the violently dislocated features and bodies of the other two have all the barbaric qualities of primitive art.
Synonyms
savage, barbarian, barbarous, primitive, heathen, wild, brutish, Neanderthal;
thuggish, loutish;
uncouth, coarse, rough, boorish, oafish, vulgar
archaic rude
2.1Uncivilized and uncultured: drinking undiluted wine was considered barbaric...
- He implied that there were civilizations and civil peoples, barbaric societies and uncivil peoples.
- Those who don't like boys-only schools would say they are barbaric and uncivilised.
- I suspect that most rational New Zealanders would argue that this is not ethical development at all, but barbaric and uncivilised, and that these beliefs have no place with a State broadcaster.
Derivatives
barbarically
/ adverb ...- One of those is Kenneth Bigley, a British engineer held hostage by terrorists who have already barbarically murdered his two American comrades.
- Take, for example, the horrible news coming out of Iraq about contract workers for Halliburton and other war corporations being brutally killed and their bodies barbarically desecrated.
- Animals were barbarically killed even next to children's playgrounds.
Origin
Late Middle English (as a noun in the sense 'a barbarian'): from Old French barbarique, or via Latin from Greek barbarikos, from barbaros 'foreign' (especially with reference to speech).