Brute, n.
1. An animal destitute of human reason; any animal not human; esp. a quadruped; a beast. Brutes may be considered as either aëral, terrestrial, aquatic, or amphibious. Locke.
2. A brutal person; a savage in heart or manners; as unfeeling or coarse person. An ill-natured brute of a husband. Franklin.
Syn. -- See Beast.
2 other Webster entries under this spelling
Brute, a.
1. Not having sensation; senseless; inanimate; unconscious; without intelligence or volition; as, the brute earth; the brute powers of nature.
2. Not possessing reason, irrational; unthinking; as, a brute beast; the brute creation. A creature . . . not prone And brute as other creatures, but endued With sanctity of reason. Milton.
3. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of, a brute beast. Hence: Brutal; cruel; fierce; ferocious; savage; pitiless; as, brute violence. Macaulay. The influence of capital and mere brute labor. Playfair.
4. Having the physical powers predominating over the mental; coarse; unpolished; unintelligent. A great brute farmer from Liddesdale. Sir W. Scott.
5. Rough; uncivilized; unfeeling. [R.]
Brute, v. t.
To report; to bruit. [Obs.]
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for brute; he lists it under animal, brutish.
Where he writes about it:
The brute is the animal viewed as dull to all finer feeling; the beast is looked upon as a being of appetites. — from animal
To call a man a brute is to imply that he is unfeeling and cruel; to call him a beast is to indicate that he is vilely sensual. — from animal
We speak of the cruel father as a brute to his children; of the drunkard as making a beast of himself. — from animal
So firmly are these figurative senses established that we now incline to avoid applying brute or beast to any creature, as a horse or dog, for which we have any affection; we prefer in such cases the word animal. — from animal
Brute has no special character, except as indicating what a brute might possess; much the same is true of animal, except that animal leans more to the side of sensuality, brute to that of force, as appears in the familiar phrase "brute force." Hunger is an animal appetite; a brute impulse suddenly prompts one to strike a blow in anger. — from brutish
Any supremacy of the animal or brute instincts over the intellectual and spiritual in man is base and vile. — from brutish