brutes

Noun

brute (plural brutes)

1. (archaic) An animal seen as being without human reason; a senseless beast.
   • 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.1714, Bernard Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees
2. A person with the characteristics of an unthinking animal; a coarse or brutal person, particularly one who is dim-witted.
   • 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."
3. A kind of powerful spotlight.
   • For a scene like the Highgate exhumation night sequence suitable equipment would consist of: two brutes on Molevators, three 10 K lights also on Molevators and, for good measure, two 5 Ks, four 2 Ks, two pups (1000 W), two North lights […]1976, A. Arthur Englander, Paul Petzold, Filming for Television, page 191
4. (UK, archaic, Cambridge University slang) One who has not yet matriculated.

See all 11 meanings of brute