| 释义 |
brutality|bruːˈtælɪtɪ|
Also 7 brutallity.
[f. as brutalism + -ity. Cf. F. brutalité.]
1. The state or condition of the brutes; the condition of living like a brute.
1711Addison Spect. No. 166 ⁋6 To deprave human Nature, and sink it into the Condition of Brutality. 1737L. Clarke Hist. Bible vii. (1740) 416 note, Nebuchadnezzar's state of brutality. 1863J. Murphy Com. Gen. iii. 1–7 The marvellous elevation from brutality to reason and speech.
2. The quality of resembling the brutes:
†a. in want of intelligence (obs.);
b. in sensuality.
1549Latimer Serm. bef. Edw. VI, Wks. I. 252 If ye will not maintain schools and universities, ye shall have a brutality. 1603Florio Montaigne iii. xii. (1632) 593 If it be so, (that the vulgar are less sensitive to pain) let us henceforth keepe a schoole of brutality. 1755Young Centaur vi. Wks. 1757 IV. 278 Of all brutes the most brutal is the volunteer in brutality; the brute self-made. 1836H. Coleridge North. Worthies I. 58 The brutality of even the highest orders.
3. Coarse incivility; violent roughness of manners; sensuality.
1709Steele Tatler No. 149 ⁋5 A natural Ruggedness and Brutality of Temper. 1848Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 145 His brutality was such that many thought him mad. 1871Morley Voltaire (1886) 46 The heavy brutality and things obscene of the court of Lewis XV.
4. Inhumanity, savage cruelty; an inhuman action.
1633H. Cogan Pinto's Trav. viii. (1663) 23 They began to talk..of the Kings Brutality and Parracide. 1693Mem. Ct. Teckely iv. 67 The Brutallity of the Turkish Troops. 1719De Foe Crusoe (1840) I. xii. 196 Hellish brutality. 1860Froude Hist. Eng. VI. 390 His [Bonner's] brutality was notorious and unquestionable. 1878Morley Diderot II. 228 The brutalities that were every day enacted. |