Brute

/bɹuːt/ · adjective

Meaning

Without reason or intelligence (of animals)..

Definitions by Sense

1. Without reason or intelligence (of animals).
2. Characteristic of unthinking animals; senseless, unreasoning (of humans).
3. Unconnected with intelligence or thought; purely material, senseless.
4. Crude, unpolished.
5. Strong, blunt, and spontaneous; being purely physical in nature.
6. Brutal; cruel; fierce; ferocious; savage; pitiless, without intelligence or reason.
7. (archaic) An animal seen as being without human reason; a senseless beast.
8. A person with the characteristics of an unthinking animal; a coarse or brutal person, particularly one who is dim-witted.

Example Sentences

a brute beast

A creature […] not prone / And brute as other creatures, but endued / With sanctity of reason.

the brute earth; the brute powers of nature

a great brute farmer from Liddesdale

I got the door open through brute force.

The two Gladiators, Kreugas and Damoxenos, a subject from Pausanias, is another work in the same grand style. There is a want of nobility both in the countenances and forms of the combatants, and the expression of brute strength is too little relieved by that of courage arid heroism. The gentlemen of the fancy too find fault with the attitudes, as contrary to the rules of boxing ; a fault to be excused in consideration of the want in Rome of an establishment like Fives' court in London.

The rest of the massive figure gives one idea, strength in perfect repose ; the countenance, in its varied expression, is the soul of the whole. This is the more evident, because the expression in the human-headed lions and bulls is precisely the same. The animal-symbol must have been altogether subordinate, because it varies, without varying in the least that expression of mind which arrests the gazer. When brute force is meant to be represented, it is figured in all its fierceness, as in the colossal lion with vast wide-open jaws, found in one of the temples at Nimrud. It expresses devouring fierceness and rage, and these alone. Instead of that calm human head, are the vast jaws outstretched, as if ready to devour, and purposely disproportioned for magnitude to the rest of the colossal figure, because the object was to express terrible fierceness.

When Mr. Chalmers refused to O. K. the sacrifice of all-round performance to mere brute might, he saved the owner of the 3400 r. p. m.

Synonyms for brute

Antonyms for brute

Related Words

Word Forms

• more brute
• most brute
• brutes
• bruting
• bruted

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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