How to Use brutalize in a Sentence

brutalize

verb
  • The prisoners claimed to have been brutalized by their captors.
  • Then came the horrors of the Days of June, when the poor and the radical took to the streets, their protests brutalized by the militia.
    Benita Eisler, WSJ, 8 June 2018
  • In which she was brutalized, stripped naked, and made to walk around with a look of misery on her face?
    Taylor Antrim, Vogue, 27 Feb. 2018
  • She was brutalized and mocked by many in the media for daring to criticize the great Karolyi.
    Ann Killion, San Francisco Chronicle, 10 Mar. 2018
  • Cities have been locked down and economies brutalized as governments try to prevent the spread.
    Anna Edney, Bloomberg.com, 8 May 2020
  • And the middle of Seattle’s line was just brutalized by Aaron Donald, who had three sacks.
    Bob Condotta, The Seattle Times, 17 Dec. 2017
  • Bryant and Milam then took Till’s brutalized body, wrapped a gin fan around the teen’s neck and sunk his body in a local river.
    Breanna Edwards, The Root, 5 Sep. 2017
  • Jack of all trades The Titans have been brutalized by tight ends all season – both great and middling alike.
    John Holler, USA TODAY Sportsbook Wire, 1 Dec. 2019
  • Weeks later, Koenig’s brutalized body would be found in pieces, weighed down at the bottom of ice-cold Matanuska Lake.
    Barbara Vandenburgh, USA TODAY, 1 July 2019
  • After a few kickouts, Lesnar got the upper hand and brutalized Rollins.
    Aaron Oster, baltimoresun.com, 12 Aug. 2019
  • John Lewis, who walked across a bridge knowing that there were police waiting to brutalize him on the other side.
    Nicole Chavez, CNN, 7 Dec. 2022
  • They were greeted as usurpers of jobs and, in the West, then still a lawless frontier, many were brutalized and massacred.
    Ligaya Mishan David Chow, New York Times, 19 Sep. 2023
  • Being raped hadn’t just stripped Sandi of her sense of control — she’d been held captive, brutalized and made to fear for her life.
    cleveland.com, 26 Sep. 2019
  • In 2012, a woman was abducted and brutalized on a moving bus in New Delhi by a gang of young men.
    BostonGlobe.com, 7 Dec. 2019
  • Who is going to make the argument that this poor, abused and brutalized girl wouldn't have been safer in U.S. detention than with a rapist?
    Fox News, 9 Aug. 2018
  • My respect is instead for those who died and were brutalized at his command.
    Evan Mawarire, Time, 6 Sep. 2019
  • There are poor and unhoused, and people brutalized or killed by police.
    Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 7 July 2023
  • Ramón has seized power and is now starving and brutalizing the people.
    Christine Dolen, miamiherald, 10 Apr. 2018
  • The attack came four years after Mason brutalized Fraser in an attack that saw him serve less than a year in prison.
    Cory Shaffer, cleveland, 1 Nov. 2019
  • The one who was playing peacefully in the streets, only to be arrested and brutalized.
    Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 20 Sep. 2017
  • Told they’d be brutalized by the conquering forces, mothers jumped from cliffs with their infants.
    Michael Judge, WSJ, 6 Apr. 2018
  • The First World War did have this brutalizing effect on public life right across Europe.
    Isaac Chotiner, Slate Magazine, 10 Feb. 2017
  • Black people are still being brutalized and murdered by the police.
    Gayle Fleming, CNN, 20 Feb. 2023
  • Many Americans were happy to see the Nazis and the Communists brutalize each other.
    Louis Menand, The New Yorker, 13 Nov. 2023
  • The two men in custody may be able to shed light on what happened to Kayla Mueller, a young aid worker al-Baghdadi had captured and brutalized.
    CBS News, 29 Oct. 2019
  • Outfit your feet properly If your toes and feet tend to feel brutalized after a long downward scramble, your footwear might be to blame.
    Alisha McDarris, Popular Science, 29 June 2023
  • The Bolsheviks had plans to brutalize their opponents from the outset.
    Jonathan Chait, Daily Intelligencer, 28 June 2017
  • Perhaps Tyndall did not brutalize young women the way that Nassar did.
    Robin Abcarian, latimes.com, 17 May 2018
  • People were brutalized by burgers and de-limbed by doughnuts.
    Kat Bein, Billboard, 9 Jan. 2018
  • The police officer who brutalizes him in the film’s central incident is a Franco-African, Gwada, at the edge of a breakdown.
    Adam Nossiter, New York Times, 6 Dec. 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'brutalize.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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