as in brute
having or showing the nature and appetites of a lower animal
as the months of recurrent combat dragged on, the daily existence of the soldiers became increasingly brutish
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Recent Examples of brutish
Set in 1957 Budapest, after the uprising against the Communist regime, the film follows a young Jewish boy, Andor, raised by his mother with idealized tales of his deceased father, who has his world turned upside down when a brutish man appears, claiming to be his true father.
—
Zac Ntim, Deadline, 26 Aug. 2025
The pure of heart among you may recoil at the notion that anyone would sow brutish chaos, hurt vulnerable people and throw any semblance of democracy under the bus for a churlish, vicious distraction.
—Pat Beall, Sun Sentinel, 14 Aug. 2025
From the earliest days of Greek drama Herakles is ridiculed for his brutish way of eating his food, his preference for a good meal versus a good woman and, in Aristophanes’s The Bird, even his reluctance to leave a barbecue in order to help save his own father.
—John Mariani, Forbes.com, 25 July 2025
The silver lining in all of this, if there is one, is that a recognition of the nasty and brutish new normal may yet mobilize the political support needed to make a dent in global emissions.
—Veerabhadran Ramanathan, Foreign Affairs, 31 July 2018
See All Example Sentences for brutish
Zac Ntim, Deadline, 26 Aug. 2025
The pure of heart among you may recoil at the notion that anyone would sow brutish chaos, hurt vulnerable people and throw any semblance of democracy under the bus for a churlish, vicious distraction.
—Pat Beall, Sun Sentinel, 14 Aug. 2025
From the earliest days of Greek drama Herakles is ridiculed for his brutish way of eating his food, his preference for a good meal versus a good woman and, in Aristophanes’s The Bird, even his reluctance to leave a barbecue in order to help save his own father.
—John Mariani, Forbes.com, 25 July 2025
The silver lining in all of this, if there is one, is that a recognition of the nasty and brutish new normal may yet mobilize the political support needed to make a dent in global emissions.
—Veerabhadran Ramanathan, Foreign Affairs, 31 July 2018
See All Example Sentences for brutish
Recent Examples of Synonyms for brutish
Adjective
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Even when hashed with the insecure NTLM function the old authentication uses, such a password would take more than five years for a brute-force attack to exhaust every possible combination.—
Jonathan M. Gitlin,
ArsTechnica,
18 Sep. 2025
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This dual-mode propulsion architecture, capable of both brute-force icebreaking and agile directional control, will make the new Polarstern uniquely equipped for complex polar operations.—
Georgina Jedikovska,
Interesting Engineering,
17 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Given the Normans’ brutal treatment of the English and their subsequent expansion across the Mediterranean, there are undeniable parallels between 1066 and later spasms of European expansionism.—
Will Collins,
The Washington Examiner,
19 Sep. 2025
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The eight-episode thriller, which premieres September 19 on ViX, follows Nolasco Black (Bichir), a forensic dentist investigating brutal murders in 19th century Veracruz who discovers evidence that the infamous London killer has crossed the Atlantic.—
Veronica Villafañe,
Forbes.com,
19 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Brutish.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/brutish. Accessed 20 Sep. 2025.
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