- brutal
- brutal, brute, brutish, bestial, beastly, feral are not close synonyms, though all suggest a likeness to or the nature of a lower animal and all, especially as applied to persons, tend to express strong derogation.Brutal is almost exclusively applied to men or their acts, characters, or words; it implies qualities (as sensuality, lack of intelligence or feeling, or inhumanity) that relate them to the lower animals{
a brutal beating
}{a senseless and brutal war
}{the consistently brutal ways of the English-speaking peoples in dealing with native populations— Mumford
}Brute is sometimes employed in distinguishing an animal from a man{a brute creature
}{brute beings
}{why am I shut out like a brute beast?— Shaw
}but more often it applies to something inanimate that can be likened to the lower animals (as in its soullessness, its irrationality, its blindness, its immobility, or its inflexibility){brute matter
}{brute force
}{as we proceed in an inquiry we adjust our laws to the brute facts— Alexander
}{words are . . . the careless, unfeeling brute mass that will not respond— Montague
}Brutish, like brutal, is usually applied to men or their acts, their minds, and their passions; it differs from brutal in that it rarely suggests cruelty and inhumanity but stresses likeness to an animal in stupidity, in lack of control over appetites, or in government by instinct{how brutish is it not to understand— Spenser
}{the English mistrust of the intellectual, the brutish aesthetic apathy and contempt for the creative artist must go— Connolly
}{whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge: but he that hateth reproof is brutish— Prov 12:1
}Bestial likewise applies to men and their acts, their minds, and their manners, but it usually stresses neither inhumanity nor a low-grade mind but a depravity or state of degradation unworthy of man and fit only for beasts and is therefore usually a term of severe reprobation{bestial habits
}{living in bestial filth
}{inclined to describe any sexual indulgence of which he does not approve as bestial— Krutch
}Beastly may come close to bestial in its suggestion of utter depravity or abominable character{beastly cruelty
}but more often it is weakened and implies no more than disapprobation of something unpleasant or distasteful to a greater or less degree{a beastly stench pervaded the house
}{a beastly day
}{beastly weather
}Feral, when applied to men, suggests savagery or ferocity{the feral instincts of men
}{her wrath, savage and feral, utterly possessed her. She was like a wild animal, cornered and conscious of defeat— S. S. Van Dine
}Analogous words: sensual, animal, fleshly, *carnal: *coarse, gross, vulgar: *stupid, dull, dense, crass: barbarous, savage (see BARBARIAN)Contrasted words: humane, humanitarian (see CHARITABLE): gentle, mild (see SOFT): chivalrous, courteous (see CIVIL)
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
