'Barbarous' definitions:

Definition of 'barbarous'

From: WordNet
adjective
(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: barbarous, brutal, cruel, fell, roughshod, savage, vicious]
adjective
Primitive in customs and culture

Definition of 'Barbarous'

From: GCIDE
  • Barbarous \Bar"ba*rous\, a. [L. barbarus, Gr. ba`rbaros, 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. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. Foreign; adapted to a barbaric taste. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
  • Barbarous gold. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. Cruel; ferocious; inhuman; merciless. [1913 Webster]
  • By their barbarous usage he died within a few days, to the grief of all that knew him. --Clarendon. [1913 Webster]
  • 4. Contrary to the pure idioms of a language. [1913 Webster]
  • A barbarous expression --G. Campbell. [1913 Webster]
  • Syn: Uncivilized; unlettered; uncultivated; untutored; ignorant; merciless; brutal. See Ferocious. [1913 Webster]

Synonyms of 'barbarous'

From: Moby Thesaurus