What is a single word to describe beating someone brutally?

What is a single word to describe "beating someone brutally"?

Solution 1:

"Thrash" is a good word, and looking at a thesaurus gives many others including batter, clobber, maul, paste, pound, pummel/pommel, wallop, assault, bash, drub, etc. Meanings depend on context and some of these can be informal/mild/humorous; before using a word, look up its meaning and examples of usage.

Bonus Indian-English slang word: thulp, probably derived from "thrash/thump to a pulp". :-)

Solution 2:

Your question said to beat someone brutally. I think "brutalize" is therefore a great candidate that no one has yet mentioned.

Solution 3:

Adding to ShreevatsaR's answer, you have trounce, which seems similar to thrash - it can mean to either beat severely or to defeat in a game/battle. Maybe you could also use pulverize, which literally means to turn to dust, but can be used to mean to beat to a pulp.

Solution 4:

One word missing from the list at this point is savage (usually used in the past tense or in its adverbial form, savagely).

Solution 5:

Batter is used often when the victim is a woman.

• "She was battered repeatedly."
• "He battered her mercilessly."
• "He committed battery on every woman he married."
• "He was convicted of battery."
• "He had a habit of battering his wife and children whenever he was drunk or angry."