Definition of "savage" []

• Not domesticated or cultivated; wild: savage beasts of the jungle. (adjective)
• Not civilized; barbaric: a people living in a savage state. (adjective)
• Ferocious; fierce: in a savage temper. (adjective)
• Vicious or merciless; brutal: a savage attack on a political rival. See Synonyms at cruel. (adjective)
• Lacking polish or manners; rude. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• ""In the estimation of niggers your garments are hideous; your legs they think elephantine, your red beard frightful, and your blue eyes savage -- _savage_! think of that.""
• "In the picture which I have given, I have confined myself principally to the Iroquois, or Six Nations, a people who no more deserve the term savage, than the whites do that of heathen, because they have still lingering among them heathen superstitions, and many opinions and practices which deserves no better name."
• "In a statement, the Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum said torture in the troubled southern African nation was "both widespread and systematic" as evidenced by what it called the savage ill-treatment while in custody of leaders of the main labor federation arrested in Harare on Wednesday."