brutalise
Verb (transitive):
- To make brutal, unfeeling, or inhuman: To cause someone or something to lose humane qualities, becoming cruel or insensitive.
- To treat brutally: To subject someone to cruel, violent, or harsh treatment.
Verb (intransitive, rare):
- To become brutal or insensitive and unfeeling: To undergo a process where one loses compassion and becomes cruel.
Transitive verb (to make brutal):
- The horrors of war can brutalise even the most gentle souls.
- A system that prioritises profit over people will eventually brutalise its managers.
Transitive verb (to treat brutally):
- The guards were accused of brutalising the prisoners.
- Protesters claimed the police used excessive force to brutalise the crowd.
Intransitive verb (to become brutal):
- After years in that toxic environment, he had completely brutalised. (Note: This intransitive use is less common.)
In sociological or psychological contexts: The term is often used to describe the dehumanising effects of institutions, violence, or extreme conditions on individuals or groups.
- The study examined how prolonged isolation can brutalise a person's psyche.
In legal or human rights discourse: Used to describe acts of severe mistreatment.
- The report documents how the regime brutalises its political opponents.
- Brutalize: The preferred spelling in American English. Both "brutalise" and "brutalize" are correct, with the "s" spelling being more common in British English.
- Brutalisation/Brutalization (noun): The act or process of making or becoming brutal.
- The brutalisation of the soldiers was a tragic consequence of the conflict.
- Brutal (adjective): Savagely violent, cruel, or harsh.
- Brutality (noun): Savage physical violence; cruel and harsh treatment.
- Dehumanise: To deprive of positive human qualities.
- Desensitise: To make less sensitive or responsive, especially to violence or suffering.
- Savage: (verb) To attack ferociously.
- Mistreat: To treat badly or cruelly.
(Note: "Brutalise" itself does not commonly form phrasal verbs. Its meaning is typically contained in the single word.) - To brutalise someone into something: To use brutal treatment to force a change or compliance (a constructed phrase, not a standard phrasal verb). - The captors tried to brutalise him into submission.
(Note: There are no common idioms centred solely on the word "brutalise.") - The concept relates to ideas expressed in idioms like: - "Harden someone's heart": To make someone less sympathetic. - "Beat into submission": To use violence to force obedience.
- become brutal or insensitive and unfeeling
- make brutal, unfeeling, or inhuman
- Life in the camps had brutalized him
- treat brutally