imbrute, v.
(ɪmˈbruːt)
Also em-.
[f. im-1 + brute n.1]
1. trans. To degrade to the level of a brute; to make bestial, brutalize.
| 1640 Bp. Reynolds Passions xvi. 165 Wee finde how farre naturall corruption..can imbrute the Manners of Men. 1667 Milton P.L. ix. 166, I..am now constraind Into a Beast, and mixt with bestial slime, This essence to incarnate and imbrute. 1742 Young Nt. Th. ii. 347 Dismounted ev'ry great and glorious aim; Embruted ev'ry faculty divine. 1875 Manning Mission H. Ghost x. 267 To indulge his love of pleasure so as to soften, to debase, to imbrute himself. |
2. intr. To sink or lapse to the level of a brute; to become bestial or degraded.
| 1634 Milton Comus 468 The soul grows clotted by contagion, Embodies, and embrutes. a 1760 I. H. Browne Poems, On a fit of Gout, So when the mind imbrutes in sloth supine, Sharp pangs awake her energy Divine. |
Hence imˈbruting vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1809 Knox & Jebb Corr. I. 497 That embodying and embruting of the soul, which is the true antipode to pure and undefiled religion. 1830 H. N. Coleridge Grk. Poets (1834) 307. 1866 Felton Anc. & Mod. Gr. II. i. i. 253 The imbruting despotism of a barbarous conqueror. |