"make coarse, gross, or inhuman, lower to the level of a brute," 1740, from brutal + -ize. Related: Brutalized; brutalizing. An earlier verb was brutify (1660s), from French brutifier. Related: Brutification.
Life in the camps had brutalized him
brutal
brutalise
brutalism
brutality
brutalization
brutalize
brute
brutish
Brutus
bruxism
Bryn Mawr