Brute Meaning
/bɹuːt/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjWithout reason or intelligence (of animals).
adjCharacteristic of unthinking animals; senseless, unreasoning (of humans).
Sentence Examples
He is a brute to his children.
Don't be a brute.
I memorized the fact sheet through sheer brute force.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The enormous wrestler lifted the car with pure physical strength, proving he was a true ____ off the mat.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He used ____ force to open the heavy stone door that was stuck today.
Word Origin & History
From Middle French brut, from Old French brut, from Latin brūtus (“dull, stupid, insensible”), an Oscan loanword, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷréh₂us (“heavy”). Cognate with Ancient Greek βαρύς (barús), Persian گران (gerân) and Sanskrit गुरु (gurú) (English guru).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"A creature […] not prone / And brute as other creatures, but endued / With sanctity of reason."
— 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
"a great brute farmer from Liddesdale"
— 1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC:
"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."
— 1820, Floyd Lavern Darrow, The North American Review, Cummings and Hilliard, page 380:
"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."
— 1868, Edward Bouverie Pusey, Daniel the Prophet, Nine Lectures, James Parker, Printing-Press of the Devonport Society, page 114:
"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."
— 1916, Floyd Lavern Darrow, Kansas Farmer, Kansas Farmer Company, pages 136-137:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The enormous wrestler lifted the car with pure physical strength, proving he was a true ____ off the mat.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He used ____ force to open the heavy stone door that was stuck today.