| / English Dictionary |
SAVAGE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A cruelly rapacious person
Synonyms:
beast; brute; savage; wildcat; wolf
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("savage" is a kind of...):
aggressor; assailant; assaulter; attacker (someone who attacks)
Derivation:
savage (attack brutally and fiercely)
savage ((of persons or their actions) able or disposed to inflict pain or suffering)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A member of an uncivilized people
Synonyms:
barbarian; savage
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Hypernyms ("savage" is a kind of...):
primitive; primitive person (a person who belongs to an early stage of civilization)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "savage"):
anthropophagite; anthropophagus; cannibal; man-eater (a person who eats human flesh)
head-shrinker; headhunter (a savage who cuts off and preserves the heads of enemies as trophies)
hunter-gatherer (a member of a hunting and gathering society)
Vandal (a member of the Germanic people who overran Gaul and Spain and North Africa and sacked Rome in 455)
Instance hyponyms:
Odoacer; Odovacar; Odovakar (Germanic barbarian leader who ended the Western Roman Empire in 476 and became the first barbarian ruler of Italy (434-493))
Derivation:
savage (without civilizing influences)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Without civilizing influences
Example:
wild tribes
Synonyms:
barbarian; barbaric; savage; uncivilised; uncivilized; wild
Classified under:
Similar:
noncivilised; noncivilized (not having a high state of culture and social development)
Derivation:
savage (a member of an uncivilized people)
savageness (the property of being untamed and ferocious)
Sense 2
Meaning:
(of persons or their actions) able or disposed to inflict pain or suffering
Example:
vicious kicks
Synonyms:
barbarous; brutal; cruel; fell; roughshod; savage; vicious
Classified under:
Similar:
inhumane (lacking and reflecting lack of pity or compassion)
Derivation:
savage (a cruelly rapacious person)
savageness (the property of being untamed and ferocious)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Wild and menacing
Example:
a pack of feral dogs
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
untamed; wild (in a natural state; not tamed or domesticated or cultivated)
Derivation:
savageness (the property of being untamed and ferocious)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Marked by extreme and violent energy
Example:
a furious battle
Synonyms:
ferocious; fierce; furious; savage
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
violent (acting with or marked by or resulting from great force or energy or emotional intensity)
Derivation:
savageness (the property of being untamed and ferocious)
III. (verb)
Verb forms
Present simple: I / you / we / they savage ... he / she / it savages
Past simple: savaged
Past participle: savaged
-ing form: savaging
Sense 1
Meaning:
Criticize harshly or violently
Example:
The critics crucified the author for plagiarizing a famous passage
Synonyms:
blast; crucify; pillory; savage
Classified under:
Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing
Hypernyms (to "savage" is one way to...):
criticise; criticize; knock; pick apart (find fault with; express criticism of; point out real or perceived flaws)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Sense 2
Meaning:
Attack brutally and fiercely
Classified under:
Verbs of fighting, athletic activities
Hypernyms (to "savage" is one way to...):
assail; assault; attack; set on (attack someone physically or emotionally)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something
Derivation:
savage (a cruelly rapacious person)
savagery (a brutal barbarous savage act)
Context examples:
The captain had often entreated me to strip myself of my savage dress, and offered to lend me the best suit of clothes he had.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
I have asked myself if the best which can be done with virtue is to shut it within high walls as though it were some savage creature.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“That the American Mrs. Meynell was living the life of a savage and living it quite successfully,” I said easily.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
It had been fighting, and manifestly had had a savage opponent, for its throat was torn away, and its belly was slit open as if with a savage claw.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
I glanced back at the coach, and I saw Lady Lade, with her savage little white teeth clenched together, throw herself forward and tug with both hands at the off-side reins.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I have tamed that savage stenographic mystery.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
The other snarled aloud into a savage laugh; and the next moment, with extraordinary quickness, he had unlocked the door and disappeared into the house.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
It gave me a kind of savage joy when I thought how Sarah would feel when she had such signs as these of what her meddling had brought about.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Every savage can dance.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
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