Brute \Brute\, a. [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.
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2. Not possessing reason, irrational; unthinking; as, a brute
beast; the brute creation.
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A creature . . . not prone
And brute as other creatures, but endued
With sanctity of reason. --Milton.
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3. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of, a brute beast.
Hence: Brutal; cruel; fierce; ferocious; savage; pitiless;
as, brute violence. --Macaulay.
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The influence of capital and mere brute labor.
--Playfair.
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4. Having the physical powers predominating over the mental;
coarse; unpolished; unintelligent.
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A great brute farmer from Liddesdale. --Sir W.
Scott.
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5. Rough; uncivilized; unfeeling. [R.]
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brute force, The application of predominantly physical
effort to achieve a goal that could be accomplished with
less effort if more carefully considered. Figuratively,
repetitive or strenuous application of an obvious or
simple tactic, as contrasted with a more clever stratagem
achieving the same goal with less effort; -- as, the first
prime numbers were discovered by the brute force
repetition of the Sieve of Eratosthenes.
[PJC]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Brute \Brute\, n.
1. An animal destitute of human reason; any animal not human;
esp. a quadruped; a beast.
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Brutes may be considered as either a["e]rial,
terrestrial, aquatic, or amphibious. --Locke.
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2. A brutal person; a savage in heart or manners; as
unfeeling or coarse person.
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An ill-natured brute of a husband. --Franklin.
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Syn: See Beast.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Brute \Brute\, v. t. [For bruit.]
To report; to bruit. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
brute
adj : resembling a beast; showing lack of human sensibility;
"beastly desires"; "a bestial nature"; "brute force";
"a dull and brutish man"; "bestial treatment of
prisoners" [syn: beastly, bestial, brute(a), brutish]
n 1: a cruelly rapacious person [syn: beast, wolf, savage,
wildcat]
2: a living organism characterized by voluntary movement [syn:
animal, animate being, beast, creature, fauna]
WordNet (r) 2.0
165 Moby Thesaurus words for "brute":
Adamic, Circean, Draconian, Goth, Mafioso, Neanderthal, Tartarean,
Young Turk, animal, animalian, animalic, animalistic,
anthropophagite, anthropophagous, atrocious, barbarian, barbaric,
barbarous, beast, beastlike, beastly, beldam, berserk, berserker,
bestial, blind, bloodthirsty, bloody, bloody-minded, bodily,
bomber, brutal, brutalized, brutelike, brutish, cannibal,
cannibalistic, carnal, carnal-minded, coarse, creature,
creeping thing, critter, cruel, cruel-hearted, demon, demoniac,
demoniacal, destroyer, devil, devilish, diabolic, dragon, dull,
dumb, dumb animal, dumb friend, earthy, fallen, fell, feral,
ferine, ferocious, fiend, fiendish, fiendlike, fierce, fire-eater,
firebrand, fleshly, fury, goon, gorilla, gross, gunsel, hardnose,
hell-raiser, hellcat, hellhound, hellion, hellish, holy terror,
hood, hoodlum, hothead, hotspur, hyena, incendiary, infernal,
inhuman, inhumane, insensate, instinctive, instinctual, irrational,
killer, lapsed, living being, living thing, mad dog, madcap,
man-eater, material, materialistic, mindless, monster, mugger,
murderous, nihilist, nonrational, nonspiritual, orgiastic,
physical, postlapsarian, rapist, revolutionary, ruthless, sadistic,
sanguinary, sanguineous, satanic, savage, senseless, shark,
sharkish, she-wolf, slavering, spitfire, subhuman, swinish,
termagant, terror, terrorist, thoughtless, tiger, tigress, tough,
tough guy, troglodyte, truculent, ugly customer, unchristian,
uncivilized, unconscious, unfeeling, unhuman, unintelligent,
unreasoning, unspiritual, unthinking, vandal, varmint, vicious,
violent, virago, vixen, wild beast, wild man, witch, wolf, wolfish,
wrecker, zoic, zooidal, zoologic
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
BRUTE, n. See :HUSBAND:.
C
THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993)
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