Dictionary

imbrute en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From im- + brute. Akin to Italian imbruttire, Spanish embrutecer, Catalan embrutar.

Meanings

1. To make brutal
   • It was his belief in his father's indifference or dislike that hardened and imbruted him; it is only when he hears how that father loved him that I now melt his pride and curb his passions. 1849, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, The Caxtons, Complete:
2. To degrade to the state of a brute
   • So imbruted and stupefied by slavery was this old woman, that she seemed to think the selling her boy away from her a perfectly humane, Christian and proper act, while all her indignation was turned against me, who had merely afforded the boy an opportunity of securing his freedom! 1855, Daniel Drayton, Personal Memoir Of Daniel Drayton:
   • Notwithstanding all that has been said, the solitary is a man imbruted, vegetating, deprived of his crown. 1851, Joseph Xavier Saintine, The Solitary of Juan Fernandez, or The Real Robinson Crusoe:
   • How deep was the change, made upon the imbruted Asiatics, we may perhaps question. 1905, Various, The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 2:

Forms

Deriveds

imbrutement