barbarous Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. adjective satellite (of persons or their actions) able or disposed to inflict pain or suffering
    savage; vicious; brutal; cruel; fell; roughshod.
    • a barbarous crime
    • brutal beatings
    • cruel tortures
    • Stalin's roughshod treatment of the kulaks
    • a savage slap
    • vicious kicks
  2. adjective satellite primitive in customs and culture

WordNet

Bar"ba*rous adjective
Etymology
L. barbarus, Gr. , strange, foreign; later, slavish, rude, ignorant; akin to L. balbus stammering, Skr. barbara stammering, outlandish. Cf. Brave, a.
Definitions
  1. Being in the state of a barbarian; uncivilized; rude; peopled with barbarians; as, a barbarous people; a barbarous country.
  2. Foreign; adapted to a barbaric taste.Obs.
    Barbarous gold. Dryden.
  3. Cruel; ferocious; inhuman; merciless.
    By their barbarous usage he died within a few days, to the grief of all that knew him. Clarendon.
  4. Contrary to the pure idioms of a language.
    A barbarous expression G. Campbell.
    Syn. -- Uncivilized; unlettered; uncultivated; untutored; ignorant; merciless; brutal. See Ferocious.

Webster 1913