Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The state or quality of being ruthless, cruel, harsh, or unrelenting.
  • noun A ruthless, cruel, harsh, or unrelenting act.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The quality of being brutal; inhumanity; savageness; gross cruelty; insensibility to pity or shame.
  • noun A savage, shameless, or inhuman act.
  • noun Synonyms Barbarity, ferocity, truculence.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The quality of being brutal; inhumanity; savageness; pitilessness.
  • noun An inhuman act.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun the state of being brutal
  • noun a cruel or savage act
  • noun the use of excessive physical force e.g. police brutality

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the trait of extreme cruelty
  • noun a brutal barbarous savage act

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • To write down his success simply to brutality is to oversimplify.

    Dawkins, Hussein, and ALF 2007

  • Now, a source close to the family says as soon as they launched their request, the Jordanian royal family decided that, yes, they could come here, they were innocent victims who had nothing to do with Saddam, who had only suffered and been victims themselves to what they called his brutality -- Kyra.

    CNN Transcript Jul 31, 2003 2003

  • However, the organisation would present further demands to the authorities to ensure what it termed brutality by warders was ended and prison conditions improved.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1994

  • However, the organisation would present further demands to the authorities to ensure what it termed brutality by warders was ended and prison conditions improved.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1994

  • However, the organisation would present further demands to the authorities to ensure what it termed brutality by warders was ended and prison conditions improved.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1994

  • The marchers are fired up by what they call brutality against a Marine veteran in Oakland, Calif., whose skull was fractured.

    SFGate: Don Asmussen: Bad Reporter By VERENA DOBNIK 2011

  • In a message posted to the site, the group said that the site had been attacked several months ago and that hundreds of passwords were released in retaliation for what they called brutality against Occupy Boston.

    Breaking News: CBS News 2012

  • The message said that the site had been attacked several months ago and that hundreds of passwords were released in retaliation for what they called brutality against Occupy Boston.

    NEWS.com.au | Top Stories 2012

  • In a message posted on the Boston police department's website, the group said that the site had been attacked several months ago and that hundreds of passwords were released in retaliation for what they called brutality against Occupy Boston.

    The Seattle Times 2012

  • The marchers are fired up by what they call brutality against a Marine veteran in Oakland, Calif., whose skull was fractured.

    KansasCity.com: Front Page 2011

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