BRUTE

beastly, bestial, brute, brutish, brutal

(adjective) resembling a beast; showing lack of human sensibility; “beastly desires”; “a bestial nature”; “brute force”; “a dull and brutish man”; “bestial treatment of prisoners”

animal, animate being, beast, brute, creature, fauna

(noun) a living organism characterized by voluntary movement

beast, wolf, savage, brute, wildcat

(noun) a cruelly rapacious person

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology 1

Adjective

brute (comparative more brute, superlative most brute)

Without reason or intelligence (of animals). [from 15th c.]

Characteristic of unthinking animals; senseless, unreasoning (of humans). [from 16th c.]

Being unconnected with intelligence or thought; purely material, senseless. [from 16th c.]

Crude, unpolished. [from 17th c.]

Strong, blunt, and spontaneous.

Brutal; cruel; fierce; ferocious; savage; pitiless.

Noun

brute (plural brutes)

(archaic) An animal seen as being without human reason; a senseless beast. [from 17th c.]

A person with the characteristics of an unthinking animal; a coarse or brutal person. [from 17th c.]

(archaic, UK, Cambridge University slang) One who has not yet matriculated.

Verb

brute (third-person singular simple present brutes, present participle bruting, simple past and past participle bruted)

(transitive) To shape (diamonds) by grinding them against each other.

Etymology 2

Verb

brute (third-person singular simple present brutes, present participle bruting, simple past and past participle bruted)

Obsolete spelling of bruit.

Anagrams

• Ubert, buret, rebut, tuber

Source: Wiktionary

Brute, a. Etym: [F. brut, nasc., brute, fem., raw, rough, rude, brutish, L. brutus stupid, irrational: cf. It. & Sp. bruto.]

1. Not having sensation; senseless; inanimate; unconscious; without intelligence or volition; as, the brute earth; the brute powers of nature.

2. Not possessing reason, irrational; unthinking; as, a brute beast; the brute creation. A creature . . . not prone And brute as other creatures, but endued With sanctity of reason. Milton.

3. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of, a brute beast. Hence: Brutal; cruel; fierce; ferocious; savage; pitiless; as, brute violence. Macaulay. The influence of capital and mere brute labor. Playfair.

4. Having the physical powers predominating over the mental; coarse; unpolished; unintelligent. A great brute farmer from Liddesdale. Sir W. Scott.

5. Rough; uncivilized; unfeeling. [R.]

Brute, n.

1. An animal destitute of human reason; any animal not human; esp. a quadruped; a beast. Brutes may be considered as either aëral, terrestrial, aquatic, or amphibious. Locke.

2. A brutal person; a savage in heart or manners; as unfeeling or coarse person. An ill-natured brute of a husband. Franklin.

Syn.

– See Beast.

Brute, v. t. Etym: [For bruit.]

Definition: To report; to bruit. [Obs.]

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition