barbarize
Strip of refinement
To barbarize is to make barbarous or uncivilized.
A conquering force might barbarize a refined culture, or prolonged isolation might barbarize manners and customs.
The word implies a decline from a more cultivated state: Years of war had barbarized the region.
Less commonly, it means to use barbarisms—nonstandard words or expressions—in speech or writing.
Treat with cruel violence
- ravageCause severe destruction
- pillageViolent theft of goods
- plunderGoods seized violently
- devastateDestroy thoroughly and completely
destroy · sack · ransack · maraud · despoil · lay waste · ruin · raid
Lower in quality
- degradeLower in standing
- pervertCorrupt or distort
- vitiateTo invalidate or debase
- debauchCorrupt through vice
deprave · brutalize · coarsen · vulgarize · cheapen · demoralize · pollute · contaminate
Make or become rough
- roughenMake surface uneven
- regressRevert to earlier state
- degenerateDecline morally or physically
- devolveTransfer or degenerate
brutalize
Treat with cruel violence
devastate · destroy · sack · ransack · maraud · despoil · lay waste · ruin · raid · conquer
debase
Lower in quality
debauch · deprave · brutalize · coarsen · vulgarize · cheapen · demoralize · pollute · contaminate · taint
coarsen
Make or become rough
- roughenMake surface uneven
- regressRevert to earlier state
- degenerateDecline morally or physically
devolve · dehumanize · animalize · bestialize · vulgarize
- barbarian tribesPeoples outside civilization's borders
- barbarian raidsAttacks by uncivilized tribes
- barbarian kingdomsPost-imperial Germanic polities
barbaric, barbarian, barbarity, barbarism, barbarically, barbarisms, barbarities, barbarized, barbarization