Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Resembling a beast; lacking human refinement or sensibility: Characterized by coarse, violent, or animalistic behavior, often implying a lack of intelligence, morality, or civilized qualities.
   • Cruel, savage, or harsh: Marked by extreme, unthinking violence or aggression.

Usage

The adjective "brutish" is used to describe people, their behavior, or conditions that are considered primitive, uncivilized, or excessively violent. It carries a strong negative connotation, suggesting a descent from human standards of decency and intelligence to a more animalistic state. It is a formal and literary term.

Examples

• The dictator's brutish regime was known for its suppression of free speech.
• He was disgusted by the brutish behavior of the drunken crowd.
• Living in such squalid conditions had a brutish effect on their spirits.
• The philosophy argued that without laws, human life would be solitary, poor, nasty, and brutish.

Advanced Usage

• "Brutish existence": A life devoid of intellectual, cultural, or spiritual refinement, focused only on basic survival or crude pleasures.
  • The novel depicts the brutish existence of miners in the 19th century.
• "Brutish instincts": Primitive, animal-like drives, such as unchecked aggression or pure physical desire.
  • He struggled to control his brutish instincts and act like a civilized man.

Variants and Related Words

• Brute (noun/adjective): As a noun, a brutal person or animal. As an adjective, it means purely physical or involving sheer strength (e.g., ).
• Bestial (adjective): Very similar to "brutish," emphasizing animal-like cruelty or depravity.
• Beastly (adjective/adverb): Can mean cruel and unpleasant (like a beast) or, informally, very unpleasant (e.g., ).

Synonyms

• Savage: Fierce, violent, and uncontrolled.
• Barbaric: Savagely cruel; exceedingly brutal.
• Animalistic: Characteristic of animals, especially in physical appetites or behavior.
• Uncouth: Lacking good manners, refinement, or grace.

Antonyms

• Civilized: At an advanced stage of social and cultural development.
• Humane: Having or showing compassion or benevolence.
• Refined: Elegant and cultured in appearance, manner, or taste.
• Gentle: Mild in temperament or behavior; kind or tender.

Idioms and Phrases

• "Brutish and short": Often used in the phrase "nasty, brutish, and short," famously from Thomas Hobbes's , describing what he saw as the natural condition of human life without a governing social contract—solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
  • He feared a return to a state of nature where life would be nasty, brutish, and short.

Adjective

1. resembling a beast; showing lack of human sensibility
   • beastly desires
   • a bestial nature
   • brute force
   • a dull and brutish man
   • bestial treatment of prisoners