How to Use brutish in a Sentence

brutish

adjective
  • She is married to a brutish, drunken slob.
  • That life, like Hobbes said, is nasty, brutish, and short.
    — Richard Stengel, Time, 1 Oct. 2025
  • They were known for their brutish style of play, led by Thomas.
    — Dana Scott, The Arizona Republic, 8 May 2023
  • People tend to look at early life as brutish, nasty and short.
    — Sonja Anderson, Smithsonian Magazine, 7 Feb. 2024
  • Life in the intertidal zone can be nasty, brutish, and short.
    — Discover Magazine, 29 June 2010
  • People tend to look at early life as brutish, nasty, and short.
    — Aspen Pflughoeft, Miami Herald, 2 Feb. 2024
  • That's making those races nasty, brutish and anything but short.
    — Hans Nichols, Axios, 5 Dec. 2024
  • This is a brutish land where lives are lost and forgotten in a moment.
    — Rob Salkowitz, Forbes.com, 19 Sep. 2025
  • His world turns upside down when a brutish man appears, claiming to be his true dad.
    — Marta Balaga, Variety, 13 May 2025
  • Her battle with the disease was nasty, brutish, and prolonged.
    — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 16 Apr. 2025
  • Every few minutes, a brutish little fish swims up, turns to sip air and peels back to the dank.
    — Ned Rozell, Anchorage Daily News, 28 Jan. 2023
  • Every few minutes, a brutish little fish swims up, turns to sip air, and peels back to the dank.
    — Anchorage Daily News, 28 Dec. 2019
  • This scrawny, 135-pound novice wanted to try a brutish contact sport?
    — Sam Cohn, Baltimore Sun, 12 Jan. 2024
  • The era wasn’t changing any more than the brutish ticking of every clock allows.
    — David Browne, Rolling Stone, 28 Sep. 2024
  • Get into the pages, though, and the brutish story is far from romantic.
    — Andrew Dansby, ExpressNews.com, 31 May 2020
  • After the studio comes the rich nob; the brutish husband; the Duke.
    — Jane Alison june 17, Literary Hub, 17 June 2025
  • The Maya get to be a poster child for eco-collapse and the stars of a brutish, bloodthirsty movie.
    — Keith Kloor, Discover Magazine, 23 Dec. 2011
  • The trail passes ledges and overhangs, ending at a pool lapping at brutish cliffs.
    — Roger Naylor, azcentral, 13 July 2018
  • Most people used to experience lives that were nasty, brutish, and short.
    — Kishore Mahbubani, Foreign Affairs, 18 Apr. 2016
  • These hopes are shattered when a brutish stranger appears on the doorstep to take his family back.
    — Leo Barraclough, Variety, 12 Sep. 2025
  • Two brutish guards learn the hard way this princess isn’t waiting for a Prince Charming.
    — Michael Ordoña, Los Angeles Times, 1 July 2022
  • The world must hope that the bold prince triumphs over the brutish one (see Special report).
    — The Economist, 23 June 2018
  • His signature club thumbs, which were the only fat, brutish things about him, were the same as ever.
    — Amanda Peet, New Yorker, 21 Mar. 2026
  • The first 54 holes at Palmer’s brutish layout proved those off their game will be exposed.
    — Edgar Thompson, Orlando Sentinel, 9 Mar. 2025
  • But during the Cold War, we were often seen as brutish and heavy-handed.
    — TIME, 9 Jan. 2024
  • Scenes of showbiz ruthlessness are left to the man who is brutish enough to unscrew that bottle of ketchup.
    — Armond White, National Review, 16 Sep. 2020
  • Just when the Utes gained some brutish momentum in the second half, their efforts fell apart.
    — Gordon Monson, The Salt Lake Tribune, 20 Nov. 2022
  • But there were a few brutish crackdowns on small protests far from Freedom Park—just a reminder.
    — Stéphanie Giry, Foreign Affairs, 2 Sep. 2015
  • Sorry, but the plodding, brutish playoff teams of the 1990s were bad for the league.
    — Bruce Jenkins, San Francisco Chronicle, 22 May 2021
  • What follows is the face journey of a woman who has tasted in the nuggets that life is, indeed, nasty, brutish, and short.
    — Madeleine Aggeler, The Cut, 30 Mar. 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'brutish.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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