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What does brute mean?

Definitions for brute
brutbrute

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word brute.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. beast, wolf, savage, brute, wildcatnoun

    a cruelly rapacious person

  2. animal, animate being, beast, brute, creature, faunaadjective

    a living organism characterized by voluntary movement

  3. beastly, bestial, brute(a), brutish, brutaladjective

    resembling a beast; showing lack of human sensibility

    "beastly desires"; "a bestial nature"; "brute force"; "a dull and brutish man"; "bestial treatment of prisoners"

Wiktionary

  1. brutenoun

    An animal seen as being without human reason; a senseless beast.

  2. brutenoun

    Someone with the characteristics of an unthinking animal; a coarse or brutal person.

    One of them was a hulking brute of a man, heavily tattooed and with a hardened face that practically screamed "I just got out of jail."

  3. bruteadjective

    Without reason or intelligence (of animals).

  4. bruteadjective

    Characteristic of unthinking animals; senseless, unreasoning (of humans).

  5. bruteadjective

    Being unconnected with intelligence or thought; purely material, senseless.

  6. bruteadjective

    Crude, unpolished.

  7. bruteadjective

    Strong, blunt, and spontaneous

    I punched him with brute force when he uppercut me

  8. Etymology: From brut, from brutus.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. BRUTEadjective

    Etymology: brutus, Lat.

    Nor yet are we so low and base as their atheism would depress us; not walking statues of clay, not the sons of brute earth, whose final inheritance is death and corruption. Richard Bentley.

    Even brute animals make use of this artificial way of making divers motions, to have several significations to call, warn, chide, cherish, threaten. William Holder, Elements of Speech.

    In the promulgation of the Mosaick law, if so much as a brute beast touched the mountain, it was to be struck through with a dart. South.

    Then to subdue, and quell, through all the earth,
    Brute violence, and proud tyrannick pow’r. Par. Regained.

    The brute philosopher, who ne’er has prov’d
    The joy of loving, or of being lov’d. Alexander Pope.

  2. Brutenoun

    A brute creature; a creature without reason; a savage.

    Etymology: from the adjective.

    What may this mean? Language of man pronounc’d
    By tongue of brute, and human sense express’d? Par. Lost.

    To judgment he proceeded, on th’ accurs’d
    Serpent, tho’ brute; unable to transfer
    The guilt on him, who made him instrument
    Of mischief. John Milton, Paradise Lost, b. x. l. 165.

    Brutes may be considered as either, aerial, terrestrial, aquatick, or amphibious. I call those aerial, which have wings, wherewith they can support themselves in the air; terrestrial are those, whose only place of rest is upon the earth; aquatick are those, whose constant abode is upon the water. John Locke.

    To those three present impulses, of sense, memory, and instinct, most, if not all, the sagacities of brutes may be reduced. Matthew Hale, Origin of Mankind.

    Heav’n from all creatures hides the book of fate;
    All but the page prescrib’d, this present state;
    From brutes what men, from men what spirits know;
    Or who could suffer being here below? Alexander Pope, Ess. on Man.

  3. To Bruteverb

    To report.

    Etymology: written ill for bruit.

    This, once bruted through the army, filled them all with heaviness. Richard Knolles, History of the Turks.

Wikipedia

  1. BRUTE

    British Rail Universal Trolley Equipment (BRUTEs) were trolleys used from 1964 until 1999 for sorting, handling and transport by rail of parcels, newspapers, etc.

ChatGPT

  1. brute

    A brute is typically referred to as a person or creature that is physically powerful, cruel, or lacking human sensibility and reasoning power. It also means crude or raw energy that shows lack and disregard for intellect and culture. In a broader sense, it refers to any living creature. Brute can also denote anything not human, generally used in a pejorative context.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Bruteadjective

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

  2. Bruteadjective

    not possessing reason, irrational; unthinking; as, a brute beast; the brute creation

  3. Bruteadjective

    of, pertaining to, or characteristic of, a brute beast. Hence: Brutal; cruel; fierce; ferocious; savage; pitiless; as, brute violence

  4. Bruteadjective

    having the physical powers predominating over the mental; coarse; unpolished; unintelligent

  5. Bruteadjective

    rough; uncivilized; unfeeling

  6. Brutenoun

    an animal destitute of human reason; any animal not human; esp. a quadruped; a beast

  7. Brutenoun

    a brutal person; a savage in heart or manners; as unfeeling or coarse person

  8. Bruteverb

    to report; to bruit

Wikidata

  1. Brute

    "Brute" is a song by industrial rock group KMFDM that was first released on their 1995 album Nihil. It was also released as a single with the song "Revolution" as B-side.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Brute

    brōōt, adj. belonging to the lower animals: irrational: stupid: rude.—n. one of the lower animals.—adj. Brut′al, like a brute: unfeeling: inhuman.—v.t. Brut′alise, to make like a brute, to degrade.—v.i. to live like a brute.—n. Brutal′ity.—adv. Brut′ally.—n. Brute′ness, brute-like state: brutality: (Spens.) stupidity.—v.t. Brut′ify, to make brutal, stupid, or uncivilised:—pr.p. brutify′ing; pa.p. brutifīed′.—adj. Brut′ish, brutal: (B.) unwise.—adv. Brut′ishly.—n. Brut′ishness.—The brute creation, the lower animals. [Fr. brut—L. brutus, dull, irrational.]

Matched Categories

Usage in printed sourcesFrom: 

Anagrams for brute »

  1. buret

  2. rebut

  3. tuber

How to pronounce brute?

How to say brute in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of brute in Chaldean Numerology is: 1

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of brute in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3

Examples of brute in a Sentence

  1. Eusebius McKaiser:

    The old South African flag symbolizes brute anti-black racism, and its longer colonial history from which it flows, to that extent, the antiquated and divisive symbolism of the Confederate flag in the U.S. finds ideological affinity with the old South African flag. Both flags show off past injustice and neither flag represents the idealism of breaking from divisive pasts in search of new, inclusive realities.

  2. Mikhail Velichko:

    Civilians can not resist brute armed force.

  3. D. H. Lawrence:

    Brute force crushes many plants. Yet the plants rise again. The Pyramids will not last a moment compared with the daisy. And before Buddha or Jesus spoke the nightingale sang, and long after the words of Jesus and Buddha are gone into oblivion the nightingale still will sing. Because it is neither preaching nor commanding nor urging. It is just singing. And in the beginning was not a Word, but a chirrup.

  4. Jalel Harchaoui:

    Libya is a corrupt, fractured environment that offers many rewards to actors bent on evading political compromise and using brute force instead, others will feel excluded and tempted to conduct attacks and grab territory.

  5. Rob Joyce:

    This lengthy brute force campaign to collect and exfiltrate data, access credentials and more, is likely ongoing, on a global scale.

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Translations for brute

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"brute." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2025. Web. 13 Feb. 2025. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/brute>.

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