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Having a cruel, ferocious disposition; bloodthirsty. Dryden.

Swinish; brutal; cruel. In his anointed flesh stick boarish fangs. Shak.

Fierce; sharp; severe; cruel. [Obs.] Spenser. From the septentrion cold, in the breme freezing air. Drayton.

Like a brute; savage; cruel; inhuman; brutish; unfeeling; merciless; gross; as, brutal manners. "Brutal intemperance." Macaulay.

In a brutal manner; cruelly.

Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of, a brute beast. Hence: Brutal; cruel; fierce; ferocious; savage; pitiless; as, brute violence. Macaulay. The influence of capital and mere brute labor. Playfair.

Pertaining to, or resembling, a brute or brutes; of a cruel, gross, and stupid nature; coarse; unfeeling; unintelligent. O, let all provocation Take every brutish shape it can devise. Leigh Hunt. Man may . . . render himself brutish, but it is in vain that he would seek to take the rank and density of the brute. I. Tay…

pon, through, etc. Tears, such as angels weep, burst forth. Milton. And now you burst (ah cruel!) from my arms. Pope. A resolved villain Whose bowels suddenly burst out. Shak. We were the first that ever burst Into that silent sea. Coleridge. To burst upon him like an earthquake. Goldsmith.

A slaughterer; one who kills in large numbers, or with unusual cruelty; one who causes needless loss of life, as in battle. "Butcher of an innocent child." Shak. Butcher bird (Zoöl.), a species of shrike of the genus Lanius.

The act of slaughtering; the act of killing cruelly and needlessly. That dreadful butchering of one another. Addison.

Murder or manslaughter, esp. when committed with unusual barbarity; great or cruel slaughter. Shak. The perpetration of human butchery. Prescott.

The act or practice of eating human flesh by mankind. Hence; Murderous cruelty; barbarity. Berke.

To treat with cruel playfulness, as a cat treats a mouse; to abuse. [Obs.] Birch.

Flesh-devouring; cruel; ravenous; bloody. [Obs.] This carnal cur Preys on the issue of his mother's body. Shak. Carnal knowledge, sexual intercourse; -- used especially of an unlawful act on the part of the man.

Free from embarrassment; detention, etc. The cruel corporal whispered in my ear, Five pounds, if rightly tipped, would set me clear. Gay. Clear breach. See under Breach, n., 4. -- Clear days (Law.), days reckoned from one day to another, excluding both the first and last day; as, from Sunday to Sunday there are six cl…

To penetrate or pierce; to wound. Which, with his cruel tusk, him deadly cloyed. Spenser. He never shod horse but he cloyed him. Bacon.

or talons, in the act of grasping firmly; -- often figuratively, for power, rapacity, or cruelty; as, to fall into the clutches of an adversary. I must have . . . little care of myself, if I ever more come near the clutches of such a giant. Bp. Stillingfleet.

d woman in supposed sexual relationship. That the duty of cohabitation is released by the cruelty of one of the parties is admitted. Lord Stowell.

nt parts of the United States; -- called also Paducahs. They are noted for plundering and cruelty.

refreshment of spirit; comfort; that which consoles or comforts the spirit. Against such cruelties With inward consolations recompensed. Milton. Are the consolations of God small with thee Job xv. 11.