savage — OET · Shobdo

savage

adjective

1 packs of savage dogs roamed the streets:

ferocious, fierce;

wild, untamed, undomesticated, feral;

predatory, ravening.

▷antonyms tame.

2 James died after a savage assault at his home near Blackpool:

vicious, brutal, cruel, sadistic, ferocious, fierce, violent, bloody, murderous, homicidal, bloodthirsty, bestial, brutish, barbaric, barbarous, merciless, ruthless, pitiless, heartless, inhuman, harsh, callous, cold-blooded;

archaic fell, sanguinary.

3 Calvert launched a savage attack on European free-trade policy:

fierce, blistering, scathing, searing, stinging, devastating, mordant, trenchant, caustic, cutting, biting, withering, virulent, vitriolic.

▷antonyms mild, gentle.

4 the decision was a savage blow for the town:

severe, crushing, devastating, crippling, terrible, awful, dreadful, dire, catastrophic, calamitous, ruinous;

mortal, lethal, fatal.

5 dated or offensive a savage race:

primitive, uncivilized, unenlightened, in a state of nature, heathen;

wild, barbarian, barbarous, barbaric;

archaic rude.

▷antonyms civilized.

6 the most savage landscape you are likely to see in the Pyrenees:

rugged, rough, wild, inhospitable, uninhabitable.

noun

1 the mother of one of the victims has described his assailants as savages:

brute, beast, monster, barbarian, ogre, demon, sadist, animal.

2 dated or offensive she had expected mud huts and savages:

barbarian, wild man, wild woman, primitive, heathen;

cannibal;

verb

1 11-year-old Kelly was savaged by two Rottweilers:

maul, attack, tear to pieces, lacerate, claw, bite, mutilate, mangle;

worry.

2 critics savaged the film:

criticize severely, attack, lambast, condemn, flay, shoot down, pillory, revile;

informal jump on, tear to pieces, take to pieces, take/pull apart, lay into, pitch into, hammer, slam, bash, do a hatchet job on, crucify, give something a battering, roast, skewer, throw brickbats at, knock;

British, informal slate, rubbish, slag off, monster;

North American, informal bad-mouth, pummel;

Australian, New Zealand, informal trash, bag, give someone bondi;

archaic excoriate, slash.

▷antonyms praise, commend, applaud.

savage Oxford Dictionary of English