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

Etymology

Origin of imbrute

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

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

imbrute imbruted imbruting

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

From Walden by Thoreau, Henry David

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 Ware, William

It is one of the marvels of human depravity that intelligent minds could have been so imbruted as to tolerate, for a day, so fiend-like a wrong.

From The Empire of Russia by Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)

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 Fisher, George Park

Retribution may come from any voice; the hardest, cruelest, most imbruted urchin at the street-corner can inflict it; surely help and pity are rarer things, more needful for the righteous to bestow.

From The Mill on the Floss by Eliot, George

His erstwhile quick wits were dulled and imbruted.

From The Sport of the Gods by Dunbar, Paul Laurence

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

From Trumps by Curtis, George William

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 Roe, Edward Payson

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 Warner, Susan