imbrute

American  

[im-broot] / ɪmˈbrut /

Or embrute

verb (used with or without object)

imbruted, imbruting

1. to degrade or sink to the level of a brute.

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Other Word Forms

• embrutement
  noun
• imbrutement
  noun

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Etymology

Origin of imbrute

First recorded in 1625–35; im- ¹ + brute ¹

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

imbrute imbruted imbruting

I care, as you know, nothing for them, nor only that, abhor them for their power to imbrute the people accustomed to their spectacles more and more.

From Zenobia or, the Fall of Palmyra by William Ware

Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man's features, any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them.

From Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Long-wrought, closely knit, subtly swaying, deep-rooted, The system whose shadow is over the child; By grey superstition debased and imbruted, By craft's callous cruelty deeply defiled.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 99, October 18, 1890 by Various

Her dignity and serenity, her pallid countenance, and the simple, pathetic words uttered by her at her arraignment, touched for the moment the hardened hearts of the imbruted spectators.

From Outline of Universal History by George Park Fisher

Ambition, political success, social prestige had no fascination for a man who was half imbruted, and utterly disappointed and worn out.

From Trumps by George William Curtis

Retribution may come from any voice; the hardest, crudest most imbruted urchin at the street-corner can inflict it.

From George Eliot; a Critical Study of Her Life, Writings & Philosophy by George Willis Cooke

In their enlightened belief, nothing stamped with the divine image and likeness was sent into the world to be trodden on and degraded and imbruted by its fellows.

From Abraham Lincoln, Volume 2 (of 2) The True Story of a Great Life by William H. Herndon

It spoke of a pause from grinding care and imbruting toil; a gleam of hope in the work-a-day routine.

From The Gold of Chickaree by Susan Warner

Not a few, on finding they cannot enter the beautiful paradise of happy love, plunge into imbruting vice, and drown not only their disappointment but themselves in dissipation.

From Barriers Burned Away by Edward Payson Roe

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