Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An animal; a beast.
- n. A brutal, crude, or insensitive person.
- adj. Of or relating to beasts; animal: "None of the brute creation requires more than food and shelter” ( Henry David Thoreau).
- adj. Characteristic of a brute, especially:
- adj. Entirely physical: brute force.
- adj. Lacking or showing a lack of reason or intelligence: a brute impulse.
- adj. Savage; cruel: brute coercion.
- adj. Unremittingly severe: was driven to steal food through brute necessity.
- adj. Coarse; brutish.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Senseless; unconscious.
- Wanting reason; animal; not human: as, a brute beast.
- Characteristic of animals; of brutal character or quality.
- Blunt or dull of sentiment; without sensibility; rough; uncivilized; insensible.
- Not associated with intelligence or intellectual effort; unintelligent; irrational.
- Harsh; crude.
- 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.
- n. A beast, especially one of the higher quadrupeds; any animal as distinguished from man.
- n. A brutal person; a savage in disposition or manners; a low-bred, unfeeling person.
- 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
- n. An animal destitute of human reason; any animal not human; especially a quadruped; a beast.
- n. A brutal person; a savage in heart or manners; as unfeeling or coarse person.
- n. A large, savage looking man.
- v. obsolete spelling of bruit.
- adj. Not having sensation; senseless; inanimate; unconscious; without intelligence or volition; as, the brute earth; the brute powers of nature.
- adj. Not possessing reason, irrational; unthinking; as, a brute beast; the brute creation.
- adj. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of, a brute beast. Hence: Brutal; cruel; fierce; ferocious; savage; pitiless; as, brute violence.
- adj. Having the physical powers predominating over the mental; coarse; unpolished; unintelligent.
- adj. Rough; uncivilized; unfeeling.
- adj. Purely physical.
- adj. Harsh; blunt
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Not having sensation; senseless; inanimate; unconscious; without intelligence or volition.
- adj. Not possessing reason, irrational; unthinking.
- adj. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of, a brute beast. Hence: Brutal; cruel; fierce; ferocious; savage; pitiless.
- adj. Having the physical powers predominating over the mental; coarse; unpolished; unintelligent.
- adj. Rough; uncivilized; unfeeling.
- n. An animal destitute of human reason; any animal not human; esp. a quadruped; a beast.
- n. A brutal person; a savage in heart or manners; as unfeeling or coarse person.
- v. To report; to bruit.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a cruelly rapacious person
- adj. resembling a beast; showing lack of human sensibility
- n. a living organism characterized by voluntary movement
Etymologies
- From Middle English, nonhuman, from Old French brut, from Latin brūtus, stupid; see gwerə-1 in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“At certain intervals his mania came upon him, the strange hallucination of something four-footed, the persistent fancy that the brute in him had now grown so large, so insatiable, that it had taken everything, even to his very self, his own identity -- that he had literally _become the brute_.”
“How I hate the man who talks about the 'brute creation,' with an ugly emphasis on _brute_ ....”
“His whole appearance at such times excited disgust in that lady, and she would leave his presence as soon as possible, using even the term brute to express her disgust; Matthias too, would attempt to rouse him on such occasions, to a sense of impropriety, by exclaiming, "Why, Elijah! what are you saying, what are you about?" while other persons would remove his hand, and hold him.”
“The retired, four-star army general who has taken over as secretary of veterans affairs is vowing what he calls a brute force effort to reform his department.”
“He said any new fight would require what he called brute force.”
“He said, any new fight would require what he called brute force.”
“We discern this fact with curious clearness when we look at other people, but it is nowhere quite so evident as in what we call the brute creation.”
Schwartz: A History From "Schwartz" by David Christie Murray
“I don't know what you call the brute," said Ukridge.”
“This latter reaches far down into the levels of what we call brute life.”
“Nobly my gallant horse strove to save me; he required not the whip or spur; I gave him a word of encouragement, and the animal, -- which we term a brute, -- returned a low, whining neigh, as if he wished me to understand that he knew my danger, and”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘brute’.
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Unsavory characters
absconder, aretaloger, arriviste, avaunter, bamboozler, bandit, banger, barbarian, barmecide, barrator, beldam, blatherskite and 190 more...
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Dramatic Nouns
Nouns to be used as descriptions while writing stories
night owl, early bird, hedonist, ascetic, derelict, explorer, radical, pity friend, cupid, truant, caretaker, guardian and 120 more...
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Public List: Two by Fives
This is an experiment in public lists--something I've been thinking about for some time. The goal is to create a collection of short, powerful, evocative words.
This is an open list. A...icy, howl, hymn, thorn, fire, vile, mist, blunt, scum, dark, shot, gleam and 137 more...
bilby Et tu, cruel rapaciousness. Oct 24, 2009