Definition of "savagery" [sav•age•ry]

• The quality or condition of being savage. (noun)
• An act of violent cruelty. (noun)
• Savage behavior or nature; barbarity. (noun)

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.

• "There is a realm of anthropology in this lower state of mankind which we call savagery, that is hard to understand from the standpoint of modern civilization, where science, theology, religion, medicine and the esthetic arts are developed as more or less discrete subjects."
• "While some of the comments there have provoked my ire, the underlying cause of my savagery is the growing realisation that the core activity of this blog – and the cause to which I have devoted three decades of my life – is a complete waste of time and effort, an utter, dismal and unremitting failure."
• "Well, those pressures are everywhere in everyone, urging him to what you call savagery: the private hells, the inner needs and mysteries, the beast of instinct."