barbaric Hear it!

barbaric Definition

bar·baric (bär berik)

adjective

  1. of, like, or characteristic of barbarians; uncivilized; primitive
  2. wild, crude, and unrestrained

Etymology: ME barbarik < L barbaricus < Gr barbarikos: see barbarous

Related Forms:

barbaric Synonyms

barbaric

modif.

  1. Primitive

    uncivilized, wild, crude, unrestrained; see barbarian 1, primitive 3.

  2. Cruel

    inhuman, brutal, fierce, barbarous; see cruel 1. See syn. study at barbarian.

barbaric Usage Examples

Modifies a noun

  • cruelty: There was never any excuse for such barbaric cruelty, especially by institutions which purported to be the sole arbiters of morality.
  • punishment: So the first decade ended with what today many would call a barbaric punishment.
  • act: Can Islamic law or the Qur'an be used to justify barbaric acts?
  • murder: Barbaric murder is barbaric murder, I don't care where you grew up.
  • regime: We will not be held to blackmail by a barbaric regime.
  • attack: Our hearts and our prayers go out to the British people and everyone who suffered loss in this barbaric attack.

Modifying Another Word

  • so: We are so barbaric here that we execute the mentally retarded people.
  • very: Our country is still very backward, still very barbaric.
  • particularly: It is particularly barbaric to allow turkeys with chronic leg disorders to be hung upside down by their legs for a full six minutes.
  • even: It's brutal, even barbaric, yet one can't help watching it with some sort of appreciative grin.
  • truly: Interesting to note that one contributor believes that nine more years and we'll turn into a truly barbaric country.
  • pretty: Beside, it's pretty barbaric really, isn't it?

Used with adjective complement

  • sound: I don't want to sound barbaric, but let me tell you, it is stimulating.
  • seem: While the last option seems barbaric, that's exactly what some parents do when their child's life is in danger.
  • consider: In the minds of many people the concept of running for your life is a very powerful image and is considered barbaric.
  • describe: The Medieval people of the Middle Ages were warlike, they have even been described as barbaric.
barbaric Quotes

I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable, I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.

—Whitman,Walt(er)

The people which ceases to care for its literary inheritance becomes barbaric; the people which ceases to produce literature ceases to move in thought and sensibility.

—Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)

Browse dictionary entries near barbaric

  1. barbarianism
  2. barbarian
  3. Barbara
  4. Barbados
  5. Barbadian
  6. barb
  7. barathea
  8. Baranof
  9. Baracaldo
  10. Barabbas
  1. barbarically
  2. barbarism
  3. barbarities
  4. barbarity
  5. barbarization
  6. barbarize
  7. barbarized
  8. barbarizing
  9. Barbarossa
  10. barbarous