brutally

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

brutal +‎ -ly

Adverb[edit]

brutally (comparative more brutally, superlative most brutally)

  1. In a brutal manner; viciously, barbarically.
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      From another point of view, it was a place without a soul. The well-to-do had hearts of stone; the rich were brutally bumptious; the Press, the Municipality, all the public men, were ridiculously, vaingloriously self-satisfied.
    • 1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1965, →OCLC, page 134:
      "You sit there," said Henry brutally.
    • 2011, Tom Fordyce, Rugby World Cup 2011: England 12-19 France[1]:
      England's World Cup dreams fell apart under a French onslaught on a night when their shortcomings were brutally exposed at the quarter-final stage.
    • 2022 November 30, Paul Bigland, “Destination Oban: a Sunday in Scotland”, in RAIL, number 971, page 75:
      And this year, some of the granite facades have a new addition - the blue and yellow of the flag of Ukraine. It's hardly surprising to see the Scots, a nation more attuned to independence than some, showing solidarity with a country brutally invaded by Russia.
  2. In a direct way that does not attempt to hide, disguise or mask unpleasantness; directly.
    He was not an expert but he was brutally honest by saying he couldn’t help the customer find a solution.
    • 2023 March 8, Gareth Dennis, “The Reshaping of things to come...”, in RAIL, number 978, page 47:
      Beeching concludes, rather brutally, that "a high proportion of stopping passenger train services ought to be discontinued as soon as possible... and as soon as procedure permits".
  3. (slang) Extremely.
    • 1995, Amy Heckerling, Clueless, spoken by Cher (Alicia Silverstone):
      You know, I am so glad I never did it with someone I had lukewarm feelings for. Christian is brutally hot, and I am going to remember tonight forever.

Translations[edit]