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2 definitions found

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:

  Barbarous \Bar"ba*rous\, a. [L. barbarus, Gr. ?, strange,
     foreign; later, slavish, rude, ignorant; akin to L. balbus
     stammering, Skr. barbara stammering, outlandish. Cf. {Brave},
     a.]
     1. Being in the state of a barbarian; uncivilized; rude;
        peopled with barbarians; as, a barbarous people; a
        barbarous country.
  
     2. Foreign; adapted to a barbaric taste. [Obs.]
  
              Barbarous gold.                       --Dryden.
  
     3. Cruel; ferocious; inhuman; merciless.
  
              By their barbarous usage he died within a few days,
              to the grief of all that knew him.    --Clarendon.
  
     4. Contrary to the pure idioms of a language.
  
              A barbarous expression                --G. Campbell.
  
     Syn: Uncivilized; unlettered; uncultivated; untutored;
          ignorant; merciless; brutal. See {Ferocious}.

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  barbarous
       adj 1: (of persons or their actions) able or disposed to inflict
              pain or suffering; "a barbarous crime"; "brutal
              beatings"; "cruel tortures"; "Stalin's roughshod
              treatment of the kulaks"; "a savage slap"; "vicious
              kicks" [syn: {brutal}, {cruel}, {fell}, {roughshod}, {savage},
               {vicious}]
       2: primitive in customs and culture

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