brute

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An animal; a beast.
2. n. A brutal, crude, or insensitive person.
3. adj. Of or relating to beasts; animal: "None of the brute creation requires more than food and shelter” ( Henry David Thoreau).
4. adj. Characteristic of a brute, especially:
5. adj. Entirely physical: brute force.
6. adj. Lacking or showing a lack of reason or intelligence: a brute impulse.
7. adj. Savage; cruel: brute coercion.
8. adj. Unremittingly severe: was driven to steal food through brute necessity.
9. adj. Coarse; brutish.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Senseless; unconscious.
2. Wanting reason; animal; not human: as, a brute beast.
3. Characteristic of animals; of brutal character or quality.
4. Blunt or dull of sentiment; without sensibility; rough; uncivilized; insensible.
5. Not associated with intelligence or intellectual effort; unintelligent; irrational.
6. Harsh; crude.
7. Synonyms Brute, Brutish, Brutal, Beastly, Bestial. Brute is the most general of these words, and remains nearest to the distinguishing difference between man and beast, irrationality: as, brute force. Brutish is especially uncultured, stupid, groveling: as, brutes and still more brutish men. Brutal implies cruelty or lack of feeling: as, brutal language or conduct. Beastly expresses that which is altogether unworthy of a man, especially that which is filthy and disgusting in conduct or manner of life. Bestial is applied chiefly to that which is carnal, sensual, lascivious: as, bestial vices or appetites.
8. n. A beast, especially one of the higher quadrupeds; any animal as distinguished from man.
9. n. A brutal person; a savage in disposition or manners; a low-bred, unfeeling person.
10. n. Nautical, a yacht that to some extent sacrifices fineness of lines to fullness of form, so that great initial stability and sail-carrying power are obtained.

Wiktionary

1. adj. Strong, blunt, and spontaneous
2. n. archaic, slang, UK One who has not yet matriculated.
3. v. Obsolete spelling of bruit.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Not having sensation; senseless; inanimate; unconscious; without intelligence or volition.
2. adj. Not possessing reason, irrational; unthinking.
3. adj. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of, a brute beast. Hence: Brutal; cruel; fierce; ferocious; savage; pitiless.
4. adj. Having the physical powers predominating over the mental; coarse; unpolished; unintelligent.
5. adj. rare Rough; uncivilized; unfeeling.
6. n. An animal destitute of human reason; any animal not human; esp. a quadruped; a beast.
7. n. A brutal person; a savage in heart or manners; as unfeeling or coarse person.
8. v. obsolete To report; to bruit.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a cruelly rapacious person
2. adj. resembling a beast; showing lack of human sensibility
3. n. a living organism characterized by voluntary movement