From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishbrutalizebru‧tal‧ize (also brutalise British English) /ˈbruːtəl-aɪz/ verb [transitive] 1 EFFECT/INFLUENCEto affect someone so badly that they lose their normal human feelings He was brutalized by his experiences in jail.2 CRUELto treat someone in a cruel or violent way Demonstrators claimed they had been brutalized by police officers.Grammar Brutalize is usually passive. —brutalization /ˌbruːtl-aɪˈzeɪʃən $ -tl-ə-/ noun [uncountable]→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
brutalize• There is something about coal mining that seems to brutalize a place.• After 75 days of being brutalized and sexually assaulted by other inmates and ignored by the prison guards, Rodney hanged himself.• Many of the prisoners were brutalized by soldiers.• The rumor quickly spread among the black soldiers that other blacks were being brutalized by the police.• Young men are often brutalized by their experiences in jail.• He had been brutalized in prison and become cynical.• Slavery brutalized its victims, but it also corrupted its masters.• Racial violence began again when law enforcement officers brutalized peaceful civil rights protestors.• Literacy can be gained by brutalizing the imagination.• Not one of the nurses apologized or indicated in any way that they had been brutalizing the patient. 