1. To cause someone to lose his or her normal human kindness or feelings: Silvia's husband seemed to brutalize her when she dropped the main dish of their dinner on the kitchen floor.
2. To treat a person in a very harsh and usually violent way: Mathew, a British soldier, said he was brutalized when he was a prisoner during the last war in Europe.

When George was robbed in his home, the robbers brutalized him and forced him to give them the cash that he had.