imbrute

English

Etymology

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

Verb

imbrute (third-person singular simple present imbrutes, present participle imbruting, simple past and past participle imbruted)

1. To make brutal
   • 1849, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, The Caxtons, Complete‎^[1]:

     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.

2. To degrade to the state of a brute
   • 1905, Various, The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 2‎^[2]:

     How deep was the change, made upon the imbruted Asiatics, we may perhaps question.

   • 1855, Daniel Drayton, Personal Memoir Of Daniel Drayton‎^[3]:

     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!

   • 1851, Joseph Xavier Saintine, The Solitary of Juan Fernandez, or The Real Robinson Crusoe‎^[4]:

     Notwithstanding all that has been said, the solitary is a man imbruted, vegetating, deprived of his crown.

References

• “imbrute”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• terbium