From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishbarbaricbar‧bar‧ic /bɑːˈbærɪk $ bɑːr-/ ●○○ adjective VIOLENTvery cruel and violent SYN barbarous The way the whales are killed is nothing short of barbaric.► see thesaurus at cruel
Examples from the Corpus
barbaric• Wine was carefully mixed with water, because drinking undiluted wine was considered barbaric.• We consider the death penalty to be barbaric.• Is the Buddhist practice any less barbaric?• Attack and reprisal-increasingly barbaric and brutal by turn-have marked the conflict since then.• This procedure, as barbaric as it is, is not done by governments.• Until recently, the great objective was to free the peasants from the barbaric constraints of Nature.• a barbaric custom• The river was despotic and barbaric, ruling over its subjects without mercy.• the barbaric treatment of civilians in the concentration camps• the barbaric treatment of women prisoners• Most of them were from the barbaric tribes nearer the frozen Hub, which had a sort of export trade in heroes.Origin barbaric (1300-1400) Old French barbarique, from Latin, from Greek, from barbaros; → BARBAROUS 