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Brute vs Thug - What's the difference?

brute | thug |

As nouns the difference between brute and thug

is that brute is an animal seen as being without human reason; a senseless beast while thug is a criminal with an intimidating and unseemly appearance and mannerisms, who treats others violently and roughly, especially for hire.

As an adjective brute

is without reason or intelligence (of animals).

As a verb brute

is obsolete spelling of lang=en.

brute

English

(wikipedia brute)

Adjective

(more)
  • Without reason or intelligence (of animals).
    • a brute beast
  • Characteristic of unthinking animals; senseless, unreasoning (of humans).
  • * Milton
    • A creature not prone / And brute as other creatures, but endued / With sanctity of reason.
  • Being unconnected with intelligence or thought; purely material, senseless.
    • the brute''' earth; the '''brute powers of nature
  • Crude, unpolished.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
    • a great brute farmer from Liddesdale
  • *
  • Strong, blunt, and spontaneous.
    • I punched him with brute force.
  • Brutal; cruel; fierce; ferocious; savage; pitiless.
    • brute violence

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • * 1714 , (Bernard Mandeville), The Fable of the Bees :
    • they laid before them how unbecoming it was the Dignity of such sublime Creatures to be sollicitous about gratifying those Appetites, which they had in common with Brutes , and at the same time unmindful of those higher qualities that gave them the preeminence over all visible Beings.
  • * 1946 , (Bertrand Russell), History of Western Philosophy , I.17:
    • But if he lives badly, he will, in the next life, be a woman; if he (or she) persists in evil-doing, he (or she) will become a brute , and go on through transmigrations until at last reason conquers.
  • A person with the characteristics of an unthinking animal; a coarse or brutal person.
    • One of them was a hulking brute of a man, heavily tattooed and with a hardened face that practically screamed "I just got out of jail."
  • *
    • She was frankly disappointed. For some reason she had thought to discover a burglar of one or another accepted type—either a dashing cracksman in full-blown evening dress, lithe, polished, pantherish, or a common yegg, a red-eyed, unshaven burly brute in the rags and tatters of a tramp.
  • (archaic, slang, UK, Cambridge University) One who has not yet matriculated.

    • Derived terms

    * brutal * brutality * brute force * brutish

    Verb

    (brut)

    • Anagrams

    * ----

    thug

    English

    (wikipedia thug) From (etyl) . Thuggee was an Indian network of secret fraternities who were engaged in murdering and robbing travellers and known for strangling their victims, operating from the 17th century (possibly as early as 13th century) to the 19th century. During of India, many Indian words passed into common English, and in 1810 thug referred to members of these Indian gangs. The sense was adopted more generally as "ruffian, cutthroat" by 1839.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A criminal with an intimidating and unseemly appearance and mannerisms, who treats others violently and roughly, especially for hire.
  • (dated) One of a band of assassins formerly active in northern India who worshipped and offered their victims to her.

    • Synonyms

    * See also