Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To bring into the condition of a brute; degrade the moral or physical state of; make senseless, stupid, or unfeeling.

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

  • transitive verb To make like a brute; to make senseless, stupid, or unfeeling; to brutalize.

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

  • verb transitive To make like a brute; to make senseless or unfeeling; to brutalize.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

brute +‎ -ify: compare French brutifier.

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Examples

  • Johnson giant, and, if very poor, the welcome buffoon of some gossiping journal, who would never weary of contortions, and who would brutify himself at the death, to kindle an admiring smile.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 79, May, 1864 Various

  • Though it crush its victims to the earth; and tread them into the dust; and brutify them by every possible invention; it cannot totally extinguish the spirit of manhood within them.

    The White Slave; or, Memoirs of a Fugitive 1852

  • Though it crush its victims to the earth; and tread them into the dust; and brutify them by every possible invention; it cannot totally extinguish the spirit of manhood within them.

    The White Slave or Memoirs of a Fugitive Hildreth, Richard 1852

  • Though it crush its victims to the earth; and tread them into the dust; and brutify them by every possible invention; it cannot totally extinguish the spirit of manhood within them.

    The Slave: or Memoirs of Archy Moore. Vol. II 163 p. 1836

  • Take the leprosy out of your flesh, before you speak of purifying stone walls — abate your insolent license, which leads but to idle vanity and sinful excess; and know, that what you now practise, is one of the profane and unseemly sports introduced by the priests of Rome themselves, to mislead and to brutify the souls which fell into their net.”

    The Abbot 2008

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