Savage Meaning
/ˈsævɪd͡ʒ/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjWild; not cultivated or tamed.
adjBarbaric; not civilized.
Sentence Examples
Music has a charm that soothes even the savage's breast.
A savage tribe lived there in those days.
CEFR Practice Quiz
In the jungle, the ____ lion suddenly attacked the hunter without any warning.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The critics delivered a ____ review of the film, calling it the worst of the year.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English savage, from Old French sauvage, salvage (“wild, untamed”), from Late Latin salvāticus, alteration of Latin silvāticus (“wild”, literally “of the woods”), from silva (“forest; grove”). Doublet of sylvatic.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The Englishman had extracted the heavy spear from the body of the lion, so that when he went into the forest to hunt that morning he had a feeling of much greater security than at any time since they had been cast upon the savage shore."
— 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 193:
"Tracing one warm line through a land so wild and savage / And make a Northwest Passage to the sea."
— 1981, Stan Rogers, “Northwest Passage”, in Northwest Passage, Dundas, Ontario: Fogarty's Cove Music:
"I obſerv'd a Place where there had been a Fire made, and a Circle dug in the Earth, like a Cockpit, where it is ſuppoſed the Savage Wretches had ſat down to their inhumane Feaſtings upon the Bodies of their Fellow-Creatures."
— 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, pages 194–195:
"What nation since the commencement of the Christian era ever arose from savage to civilized without Christianity?"
— 1826 September, Edward D. Griffin, “Sermon IV. […] ”, in The National Preacher, volume 1, number 4, page 51:
"It is so absurd to advance into the presence of savage royalty after the fashion of an Irishman driving a pig to market, for that is what we looked like, and the idea nearly made me burst out laughing then and there."
— 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
In the jungle, the ____ lion suddenly attacked the hunter without any warning.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The critics delivered a ____ review of the film, calling it the worst of the year.