[f. as prec. + -NESS.] Brutish quality or condition.
1547–64. Bauldwin, Mor. Philos. (Palfr.), ii. 3. The further off we shall be from the brutishnesse of beasts.
1683. Cave, Ecclesiastici, 470. The fierceness and brutishness of the man’s temper.
1850. Blackie, Æschylus, I. Pref. 38. What a fearful mire of brutishness.
