S — Saunders to Savor (Part 3 of 7)

3. Uncivilized; untaught; unpolished; rude; as, savage life; savage manners.

What nation, since the commencement of the Christian era, ever rose from savage to civilized without Christianity?

4. Characterized by cruelty; barbarous; fierce; ferocious; inhuman; brutal; as, a savage spirit.

Syn. — Ferocious; wild; uncultivated; untamed; untaught; uncivilized; unpolished; rude; brutish; brutal; heathenish; barbarous; cruel; inhuman; fierce; pitiless; merciless; unmerciful; atrocious. See Ferocious.

Savage
(Sav"age), n.

1. A human being in his native state of rudeness; one who is untaught, uncivilized, or without cultivation of mind or manners.

2. A man of extreme, unfeeling, brutal cruelty; a barbarian.

Savage
(Sav"age) v. t. To make savage. [R.]

Its bloodhounds, savaged by a cross of wolf.

Savagely
(Sav"age*ly), adv. In a savage manner.

Savageness
(Sav"age*ness), n. The state or quality of being savage.

Wolves and bears, they say,
Casting their savageness aside have done
Like offices of pity.

Savagery
(Sav"age*ry) n. [F. sauvagerie.]

1. The state of being savage; savageness; savagism.

A like work of primeval savagery.

2. An act of cruelty; barbarity.

The wildest savagery, the vilest stroke,
That ever wall-eyed wrath or staring rage
Presented to the tears of soft remorse.

3. Wild growth, as of plants. Shak.

Savagism
(Sav"a*gism) n. The state of being savage; the state of rude, uncivilized men, or of men in their native wildness and rudeness.

Savanilla
(Sav`a*nil"la) n. (Zoöl.) The tarpum. [Local, U.S.]

Savanna
(Sa*van"na) n. [Of American Indian origin; cf. Sp. sabana, F. savane.] A tract of level land covered with the vegetable growth usually found in a damp soil and warm climate, — as grass or reeds, — but destitute of trees. [Spelt also savannah.]

Savannahs are clear pieces of land without woods.

Savanna flower (Bot.), a West Indian name for several climbing apocyneous plants of the genus Echites. — Savanna sparrow (Zoöl.), an American sparrow (Ammodramus sandwichensis or Passerculus savanna) of which several varieties are found on grassy plains from Alaska to the Eastern United States. — Savanna wattle (Bot.), a name of two West Indian trees of the genus Citharexylum.