brunt

English

Etymology

From Middle English brunt, bront (“sudden onset, attack, charge, blow”), from Old Norse brundr or brundtíð (“oestrus, rut”) (from Proto-Germanic *brunstiz), or bruna (“to rush”, literally “to advance like wildfire”) (see brenna).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɹʌnt/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌnt

Noun

brunt (plural brunts)

1. The full adverse effects; the chief consequences or negative results of a thing or event.

   Unfortunately, poor areas such as those in New Orleans bore the brunt of Hurricane Katrina’s winds.

   • 1862, Arthur Young, John Chalmers Morton, The Farmer's Calendar:

     There is an economy in the matter of breakages and repairs, for if the plough should be brought up upon a landfast rock, instead of the brunt coming simply on the draught rope, which would either snap or pull the framework of the plough to pieces, it is, through the pull of the one drum upon the other, immediately spread all over the field wherever the rope goes […]

   • 2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, “New Jersey reels from storm's thrashing”, in The New York Times‎:

     Though the storm raged up the East Coast, it has become increasingly apparent that New Jersey took the brunt of it.

2. The force or shock of an attack in war.
3. The major part of something; the bulk.

   If you feel tired of walking, just think of the poor donkey who has carried the brunt of our load.

4. (obsolete) A violent attack or charge in battle.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. The First Part , 2nd edition, part 1, London: Richard Iones, , published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:

     Tech[elles]. I heare them come, ſhall wee encounter them?
     Tam[burlaine]. Keep all your ſtandings, and not ſtir a foot,
     Myſelfe will bide the danger of the brunt.

5. (obsolete, by extension) A sudden harmful onset or attack (of disease, unbelief, persecution, etc.).
6. (obsolete) A spurt, a sudden effort or straining.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

brunt (third-person singular simple present brunts, present participle brunting, simple past and past participle brunted)

1. (transitive, rare) To bear the brunt of; to weather or withstand.
   • 1859, George Meredith, chapter 7, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. , volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC:

     "… I say." Ripton resumed the serious intonation, "do you think they'll ever suspect us?"
     "What if they do? We must brunt it."
     We brunted the storm.

2. (intransitive, obsolete) To make a violent attack or charge.

Translations

References

• “brunt”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• burnt

Norwegian Bokmål

Adjective

brunt

1. neuter singular of brun

Norwegian Nynorsk

Adjective

brunt

1. neuter singular of brun

Swedish

Adjective

brunt

1. indefinite neuter singular of brun

Noun

brunt n

1. the color brown
2. (slang) hashish

   Synonyms: b, hasch

Derived terms

• bajsbrunt
• chokladbrunt

See also

• grönt

References

• brunt in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• Swedish Police Authority list of drug slang
• Slangopedia