brutalize

Whether or not he decides to appear at the trial, scheduled to begin later this year, the A.G. can use his videoed deposition testimony to brutalize him the same way Carroll’s lawyers did.

From Slate ● May 11, 2023

He said the new commissioner should also commit to firing police officers who “abuse, harass, brutalize, and kill” and promote transparency by releasing more disciplinary records.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 6, 2022

“It will consume government. It will brutalize people. It will cost taxpayers millions of dollars,” he said.

From Washington Times ● Aug. 10, 2021

“Oliver Twist” exposes, on every page, the hypocrisy of those who brutalize vulnerable children and claim to be virtuous in the process.

From Salon ● Jun. 24, 2018

The weight of the sand began to brutalize her shoulders.

From "The Princess Bride" by William Goldman

Any overacting brutalizes Cheever's prose; mugging is the artistic equivalent of a mugging.

From Time Magazine Archive

That hardens people, and brutalizes them, but somehow we mostly admire them and applaud them for their success against odds.

From The Quality of Mercy by William Dean Howells

It unfailingly changes the expression; frequently, it degrades and brutalizes the face.

From The Winning Clue by James Hay

All punishment which is not tempered with forgiveness is brutal; and brutalizes both punisher and punished.

From Practical Ethics by William De Witt Hyde

Frugality, in fact, softens character, in animals as in men; gross feeding brutalizes it.

From The Wonders of Instinct Chapters in the Psychology of Insects by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos

This is not the first time I have encountered a situation where the hapless staff find themselves brutalized by loud, idiotic, or culturally discordant music.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 15, 2025

This is about as much of a review of “All’s Fair” worth venturing at this point, since pretty much every critic has brutalized the show.

From Salon ● Nov. 6, 2025

When, in the mid-20th century, President Dwight Eisenhower’s “mighty network of highways” spread its tentacles across the landscape, it brutalized nature.

From Slate ● May 25, 2024

Do we want them to leave prison alienated, brutalized, stigmatized and lacking in employable skills?

From New York Times ● Mar. 25, 2023

“Please, Gus. Not another word. Even my brutalized spirit has some sensitivity left. I can’t let you slander my girls like that.”

From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole

Dahlia Lithwick: These were incredibly consequential gut punches, two more in a long sequence of brutalizing cases.

From Slate ● Jun. 25, 2026

Los Angeles built off the momentum, brutalizing Arizona with eight straight designed runs to start off a 75-yard touchdown drive to open the third quarter.

From Washington Times ● Oct. 16, 2023

Levinson is perhaps not enough of a formalist to fully convey, assuming any film could, the combined visceral and mental toll professional boxing must have taken on a man haunted by brutalizing his comrades.

From New York Times ● Apr. 27, 2022

Not, how do we ensure that the police are not brutalizing the Black community?

From Salon ● Jul. 12, 2021

Three thousand children crowded into this ugly brutalizing school that had facilities for only one thousand.

From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith