adjective

• Deriving pleasure from inflicting pain, suffering, or humiliation on others.

  ‘she took a sadistic pleasure in tormenting him’

  More example sentences

  • ‘a sadistic killer’
  • ‘They claim it is not their fault that life can be vulgar, pornographic and sadistic.’
  • ‘Why not call them brutal, sadistic or even murderous when they act that way?’
  • ‘Darkly erotic, sadistic and unsettling, Les Liaisons Dangereuses is regarded as a masterpiece.’
  • ‘There's a terrible scene where he is chained to a whipping post and flogged with sadistic pleasure by brutish Roman guards.’

  Synonyms

  callous, barbarous, bestial, perverted, vicious, brutal, cruel, savage, fiendish, cold-blooded, inhuman, ruthless, heartless, merciless, pitiless

  View synonyms