How to Use savage in a Sentence

savage

1 of 3 adjective
  • The coast was lashed by savage storms.
  • He was the victim of a savage attack.
  • He wrote savage satires about people he didn't like.
  • This league is a savage league.
    — Anthony Chiang, Miami Herald, 22 Dec. 2025
  • That one was not savage, but that’s what that was.
    — Joe Hagan, Vanity Fair, 27 Feb. 2026
  • The last part of the class gets even more savage, silly, loud, and weird.
    — Aubree Nichols, Vogue, 29 Dec. 2020
  • Nothing like when your man and baby are more savage than you!
    — Jen Juneau, PEOPLE.com, 21 Apr. 2020
  • What if your friends don't see your sassy and savage selfie caption as cute?
    — Seventeen, 30 June 2022
  • This means that the gamut runs widely, from groping to the most savage rapes.
    — The Economist, 14 Nov. 2019
  • Hamas are a bunch of savage animals.
    — Jordan King, MSNBC Newsweek, 19 Sep. 2025
  • What the cheerleaders do in some of these movies is downright savage.
    — Christopher Rosa, Glamour, 10 Sep. 2019
  • The rest of what happened is as savage as combat gets and Bellavia put it all in this book.
    — David Martin, CBS News, 25 June 2019
  • The wide shot of Chris Jericho going off the top of the cage was savage.
    — Alfred Konuwa, Forbes, 6 May 2021
  • Pilecki received a savage blow to his mouth that dislodged two molars.
    — Neal Bascomb, WSJ, 12 July 2019
  • Teigen is a pro at throwing all kinds of shade at her singer husband, from innocent to the most savage.
    — Christopher Rosa, Glamour, 17 July 2018
  • The landlord class, Swift was saying, was clearly savage enough for that.
    — Matthew Wills, JSTOR Daily, 30 Sep. 2025
  • The ensuing carnage was swift and savage.
    — Paul Solotaroff, Rolling Stone, 12 Oct. 2025
  • Trey Dean was more than just the most savage hit of the Crimson Tide season.
    — Michael Casagrande | [email protected], al, 22 Dec. 2020
  • But box-office busts and savage reviews didn’t diminish his appeal, much less his zeal to try again.
    — Jocelyn McClurg, USA TODAY, 19 May 2018
  • This time looks pretty savage and it was caused by China banning bitcoin, no ifs, no buts.
    — Clem Chambers, Forbes, 28 Sep. 2021
  • That would have been savage, but Traitors is an individual game.
    — Jason Pham, StyleCaster, 6 Feb. 2026
  • The action was furious and savage.
    — Oskar Garcia, New York Times, 15 June 2026
  • Wendy's, known for its savage clapbacks, had much to say about IHOb's big reveal.
    — Becca Smouse, azcentral, 11 June 2018
  • The story of that savage battle, fought in the dark at point-blank range, will be the subject of the next Portals.
    — Gary Kamiya, San Francisco Chronicle, 25 May 2018
  • This year's relentless winter in the East is about to unleash its most savage cold outbreak yet.
    — Doyle Rice, USA Today, 5 Feb. 2026
  • The makeup store clerk played by Kiara Pichardo might be the most savage character on this whole show.
    — Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 4 July 2021
  • The stock market rose during the briefing after a savage drop Monday.
    — Lisa Mascaro, Anchorage Daily News, 17 Mar. 2020
  • Two weeks after his savage video review, Jeffree gets back on Twitter.
    — Kelsey Stiegman, Seventeen, 6 Mar. 2018
  • And that involved a savage murder, the murder of Karen Ermert.
    — CBS News, 14 Mar. 2020
  • And then there was Megan Thee Stallion, who lit up an unnamed nemesis with a savage new diss track.
    — Los Angeles Times, 19 Apr. 2022

savage

2 of 3 noun
  • What kind of savage could have committed such a terrible crime?
  • Nighttime noises, tame or savage, will jolt many of us awake.
    — Elissa Strauss, CNN, 15 Sep. 2020
  • And Texas’ savage out-getters can’t wait.
    — Kirk Bohls, Houston Chronicle, 12 Feb. 2026
  • One answer would be that the more savage the storm, the more urgent the need for safe havens.
    — Anthony Lane, New Yorker, 13 Apr. 2026
  • Bowers was caught in a savage blizzard and lost contact with the rest of the team.
    — Ethan Kuperberg, The New Yorker, 12 Feb. 2022
  • And that friction — between soft and savage — is what keeps us going.
    — Alma Rota, Rolling Stone, 14 Oct. 2025
  • For fans of of smart thrillers with a savage streak, this Nordic tale looks to be right up your dark alley.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 Mar. 2021
  • Nature can be a lot of things—beautiful, bloody, sweet, savage.
    — Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 25 May 2026
  • My first indication of danger came when a savage gust of wind hit us broad side.
    — Jim Hoagland, Outdoor Life, 30 Apr. 2026
  • Maraniss, however, shatters the myth of the child-like savage.
    — Louis Moore, BostonGlobe.com, 25 Aug. 2022
  • Megan Thee Stallion is a savage and has the degree to prove it.
    — Elise Brisco, USA TODAY, 11 Dec. 2021
  • Or Irish, in a time when they were seen as savages by the Englishmen?
    — Arushi Jacob, Variety, 13 Feb. 2026
  • Two nights later, Kelly embarked on an even more savage crime spree.
    — Gary Kamiya, SFChronicle.com, 10 July 2020
  • But when the song came on, the savage beast turned into a (expletive) kitten.
    — Troy L. Smith, cleveland, 18 Apr. 2021
  • Smoothbrain libs and savages can KMA.
    — Joe Kinsey Outkick, FOXNews.com, 18 May 2026
  • Or a group of shipwrecked boys turning into savages and killing one another?
    — Glenn Whipp, Los Angeles Times, 8 June 2026
  • The Indians in Westerns had war paint and whooped like savages.
    — Literary Hub, 28 May 2026
  • This one just happens to involve wizards, goblins, and one savage, half-blind dragon.
    — Séamas O'Reilly, Vulture, 26 Mar. 2026
  • Suzuki passed a chair to Jon Moxley and challenged him to a duel like a savage.
    — Alfred Konuwa, Forbes, 25 Sep. 2021
  • Perhaps the most striking thing about this savage beatdown is its sweetly melodic backing track.
    — René Ostberg, Encyclopedia Britannica, 2 July 2026
  • The bombing of a maternity ward in the city became a global symbol of the savage war.
    — New York Times, 24 Mar. 2022
  • Still, Edgar-Jones is quick to rebut any notion that Kya is a savage creature.
    — Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 10 May 2022
  • Days and nights of dull watches and putrid food are punctuated by the terrors of sea storms and savage battles.
    — Jonathan W. Jordan, WSJ, 15 Apr. 2022
  • Schoolchildren meet veterans from the savage fight in Ukraine.
    — Nick Paton Walsh, CNN Money, 6 July 2026
  • Second, Big Inflation will take a savage bite from those ebbing advances.
    — Shawn Tully, Fortune, 4 June 2022
  • The villages clung to the savage hillsides, radiant white, rinsed by violent winds.
    — New York Times, 19 Apr. 2022
  • And that involved a savage murder, the murder of Karen Ermert.
    — Jim Axelrod, CBS News, 26 Dec. 2020
  • So instead of vast deficits, the states will have to make savage cuts to public services in the midst of a recession and pandemic.
    — The Economist, 18 June 2020
  • The putrid rainwater that still covers thousands of square miles is standing with a savage stillness, a killer calm.
    — Nazish Brohi, The Atlantic, 6 Oct. 2022
  • The press crafted his image as both a noble Indian and a simple savage.
    — Aram Goudsouzian, Washington Post, 12 Aug. 2022

savage

3 of 3 verb
  • A hurricane savaged the city.
  • He looked like he'd been savaged by a wild animal.
  • The newspapers savaged his reputation.
  • Not bad for a film that critics savaged.
    — David Bloom, Forbes.com, 30 Aug. 2025
  • The two men have sparred, but not savaged each other, in previous debates.
    — Glenn Thrush, BostonGlobe.com, 15 Mar. 2020
  • The midi was an old style and shouldn’t have been earth shattering, but the show was savaged by critics.
    — Marlen Komar, Vox, 27 June 2019
  • That woman whose cows have been savaged by a lion has taken to keeping her last cow inside.
    — Josephine Livingstone, New Republic, 1 Sep. 2017
  • My grandfather used to use a wooden walking stick and beat back the nettles—just savage them.
    — Michael Schulman, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2025
  • That changed last year when a mountain lion started coming around at night, savaging her alpacas.
    — sacbee, 3 Nov. 2017
  • Instead, it was largely savaged by critics, crushing for the man at its center.
    — Lacey Rose, HollywoodReporter, 18 Dec. 2025
  • For months, the two right-wing media stars had been savaging each other on their respective platforms.
    — Jason Zengerle, New Yorker, 24 Jan. 2026
  • When Pons and Fleischmann published a paper at last, their work was savaged as a sham.
    — Virginia Heffernan, WIRED, 1 Mar. 2023
  • On a summer day in a park in Brooklyn, the sun savaged a swarm of actors in sturdy wool coats and pert hats.
    — Alexis Soloski, idahostatesman, 7 Jan. 2018
  • Savaged replaced a struggling Osweiler as the starter two weeks ago.
    — Jimmy Durkin, The Mercury News, 3 Jan. 2017
  • Issues with sets, sound and rehearsal time led to a disastrous opening that was savaged by critics.
    — Tony Bravo, San Francisco Chronicle, 2 Jan. 2020
  • That did not keep Nunes from going on television to savage those very decisions.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 12 May 2018
  • And DiZoglio was savaged in the gossipy halls of the State House.
    — Yvonne Abraham, BostonGlobe.com, 15 Mar. 2018
  • So, why, given all of the downsides, did Trump spend his morning savaging Corker?
    — Chris Cillizza, CNN, 8 Oct. 2017
  • Predictably perhaps, Penn’s novel has been savaged by critics.
    — Mark Shanahan, BostonGlobe.com, 30 Mar. 2018
  • We’ve been dealt a nigh-unbearable hand when two of our communities were utterly savaged by fire.
    — Patt Morrison, Los Angeles Times, 26 Mar. 2026
  • Plenty of now-classic films bombed at the box office and/or were critically savaged at the time of their release.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 3 Dec. 2018
  • But both also got weighed down by their stars, pulling in so-so receptions from audiences (and getting savaged by critics).
    — Angela Watercutter, WIRED, 2 June 2017
  • Though the film plays at both the Sundance and Toronto film festivals, the movie is savaged by many critics.
    — Clark Collis, EW.com, 29 Jan. 2020
  • Democrats would savage Republicans for their failure and balance would be restored.
    — Kyle Whitmire | [email protected], al, 1 Aug. 2023
  • Trump replied to Bannon’s comments with a statement savaging his former confidant.
    — Paul Farhi, Washington Post, 9 Jan. 2018
  • Reviewers of the play savaged both the director and the writer but sang Burnett’s praises.
    — Rachel Syme, New Yorker, 29 Sep. 2025
  • But overall, Waters did a good job until his roster was savaged by graduate transfers to other schools.
    — Terry Pluto, cleveland.com, 28 July 2019
  • Critics savaged Sean Dolan, who started it all, filed a complaint with the university.
    — Dallas News, 27 Feb. 2020
  • Wolfe savaged the evening with a portrait of the fashionably liberal crowd engaging with militants over canapes.
    — Thomas Curwen, sacbee, 15 May 2018
  • Rory’s mouth was shiny with grease and Eustace had his face down almost on the plate, the pair savaging at their food with the shameless avidity of children.
    — Colin Barrett, Harper's magazine, 22 July 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'savage.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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