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
These hopes are shattered when a brutish stranger appears on the doorstep to take his family back.
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Leo Barraclough, Variety, 12 Sep. 2025
With trigger-warning culture on the wane and a brutish permissiveness creeping back into society, corporate scolds have lost much of their power.
—Liz Hoffman, semafor.com, 2 Sep. 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
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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Josh Jacobs ran with brute force on high volume.—
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There’s not much on 1 IN A MILLION that will blow you away; the beats are of the same unmiraculous mold—Michigan brute force meets Louisiana jig—that has been holding down Florida street rap for the last half-decade, and the lyrics rarely jump off the page on their own.—
Adjective
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Between wading or boating into choppy surf, baking in the hot sun, and getting doused in salty spray, the elements are brutal on the human body and the gear meant to withstand them.—
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Phạm Lockwood also spoke with Huan Nguyen, the sole survivor of a massacre of a South Vietnamese family in Saigon, a brutal attack allegedly orchestrated by Capt.—
Cite this Entry
“Brutish.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/brutish. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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