(~s, savaging, ~d)
1.
Someone or something that is ~ is extremely cruel, violent, and uncontrolled.
This was a ~ attack on a defenceless young girl.
...a ~ dog lunging at the end of a chain.
= vicious
ADJ
~ly
He was ~ly beaten.
ADV
2.
If you refer to people as ~s, you dislike them because you think that they do not have an advanced society and are violent.
...their conviction that the area was a frozen desert peopled with uncouth ~s.
N-COUNT: usu pl disapproval
3.
If someone is ~d by a dog or other animal, the animal attacks them violently.
The animal then turned on him and he was ~d to death.
VERB: usu passive, be V-ed
4.
If someone or something that they have done is ~d by another person, that person criticizes them severely.
The show had already been ~d by critics...
Speakers called for clearer direction and ~d the Chancellor.
VERB: be V-ed, V n