Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The quality or condition of being savage.
- noun An act of violent cruelty.
- noun Savage behavior or nature; barbarity.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Savage or uncivilized state or condition; a state of barbarism.
- noun Savage or barbarous nature, disposition, conduct, or actions; barbarity.
- noun Wild growth, as of plants; wildness, as of nature.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The state of being savage; savageness; savagism.
- noun An act of cruelty; barbarity.
- noun Wild growth, as of plants.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun the status of being
savage - noun a
violent act ofcruelty - noun
savage orbrutal behaviour ;barbarity
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a brutal barbarous savage act
- noun the trait of extreme cruelty
- noun the property of being untamed and ferocious
Etymologies
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Examples
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There is a realm of anthropology in this lower state of mankind which we call savagery, that is hard to understand from the standpoint of modern civilization, where science, theology, religion, medicine and the esthetic arts are developed as more or less discrete subjects.
Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1885-1886, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891 John Wesley Powell 1868
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While some of the comments there have provoked my ire, the underlying cause of my savagery is the growing realisation that the core activity of this blog – and the cause to which I have devoted three decades of my life – is a complete waste of time and effort, an utter, dismal and unremitting failure.
Our own worst enemies Richard 2006
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Well, those pressures are everywhere in everyone, urging him to what you call savagery: the private hells, the inner needs and mysteries, the beast of instinct.
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While the natives of Torres Straits are, or were at the time of their discovery, in the condition which we call savagery, they stand on a far higher level of social and intellectual culture than the rude aborigines of Australia.
The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead, Volume I (of 3) The Belief Among the Aborigines of Australia, the Torres Straits Islands, New Guinea and Melanesia James George Frazer 1897
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Truly, the veneer between civilized thought and jungle savagery is thinner than I ever thought. hardtruth
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She outgames him, out-savages him, teaches him what savagery is in its intimate mood and tense.
CHAPTER XII 2010
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Born in savagery, having lived in savagery all their lives and known naught else, their sense of humour was correspondingly savage.
CHAPTER VII 2010
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His punishment for such savagery is transformation.
Ten of the best John Mullan 2010
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The reference here emphasizes how the castaways are alone on the island without any law but their own and thus the possibility of savagery is great.
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Only about a seventh of game titles sold in 2005 were the racy or violent stuff that draws an M (for “mature”) rating; the stereotype that video games are nothing but antisocial savagery is just that — a stereotype.
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