BRUTALITY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does brutality mean? 

• BRUTALITY (noun)
  The noun BRUTALITY has 2 senses:

1. the trait of extreme cruelty

2. a brutal barbarous savage act

  Familiarity information: BRUTALITY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BRUTALITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The trait of extreme cruelty

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

brutality; ferociousness; savagery; viciousness

Hypernyms ("brutality" is a kind of...):

cruelness; cruelty; harshness (the quality of being cruel and causing tension or annoyance)

Derivation:

brutal ((of persons or their actions) able or disposed to inflict pain or suffering)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A brutal barbarous savage act

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

barbarism; barbarity; brutality; savagery

Hypernyms ("brutality" is a kind of...):

atrocity; inhumanity (an act of atrocious cruelty)

 Context examples 

The continual brutality around me was degenerative in its effect.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I was very much concerned for his misfortunes, and felt that any recognition short of ninepence would be mere brutality and hardness of heart.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But when a creature pretending to reason could be capable of such enormities, he dreaded lest the corruption of that faculty might be worse than brutality itself.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Charles and Hal begged her to get off and walk, pleaded with her, entreated, the while she wept and importuned Heaven with a recital of their brutality.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Brutal it was, no doubt, and its brutality is the end of it; but it is not so brutal as war, which will survive it.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The violent and causeless excitement, followed by this brutality of speech, so far removed from his usual suavity, showed me how deep was the disorganisation of his mind.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The physician came and prescribed medicines, and the old woman prepared them for me; but utter carelessness was visible in the first, and the expression of brutality was strongly marked in the visage of the second.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I shall, however, preserve my former rule, and give the preference to those cases which derive their interest not so much from the brutality of the crime as from the ingenuity and dramatic quality of the solution.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The last twenty-four hours have witnessed a carnival of brutality.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Having thus answered the only objection that can ever be raised against me as a traveller, I here take a final leave of all my courteous readers, and return to enjoy my own speculations in my little garden at Redriff; to apply those excellent lessons of virtue which I learned among the Houyhnhnms; to instruct the Yahoos of my own family, is far as I shall find them docible animals; to behold my figure often in a glass, and thus, if possible, habituate myself by time to tolerate the sight of a human creature; to lament the brutality to Houyhnhnms in my own country, but always treat their persons with respect, for the sake of my noble master, his family, his friends, and the whole Houyhnhnm race, whom these of ours have the honour to resemble in all their lineaments, however their intellectuals came to degenerate.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)