frequently_asked_questions_files/Oxford Thesaurus.pdf

spot of bother: Mark has had several brushes with the law.
--v. 4 scrub, clean; groom, curry; sweep, whisk, gather: Brush
your teeth twice a day. I brushed down the mare before saddling
her. Brush the crumbs off the table. 5 graze, touch: He
deliberately tried to brush against her in the corridor. 6
brush aside or away. disregard, dismiss, put aside, shrug off:
Brushing aside the members' objections, he tried to force the
committee's acceptance of the new rules. 7 brush off. dismiss,
ignore, rebuff, send off or away or packing: He asked her out,
but she brushed him off. 8 brush up (on). review, restudy, go
over, refresh, study, Archaic con: You should brush up on your
geometry before taking trigonometry.
brush-off n. dismissal, rebuff, rejection, snub, Colloq cold shoulder,
put-down, slap in the face, the (old) heave-ho; Chiefly US and
Canadian walking papers: Tanya has given Theo the brush-off -
said she never wants to see him again.
brusque adj. blunt, rude, overbearing, impolite, uncivil, discourteous,
ungracious, ill-mannered, unmannerly; churlish, gruff, abrupt,
short, curt, sharp, terse, brash, bluff: I could tell that the
interviewer had already decided against me by her brusque
attitude.
brutal adj. 1 inhuman, savage, cruel, pitiless, harsh, severe,
barbaric, barbarous, beastly, bestial, sadistic, murderous;
inhumane, heartless, hard-hearted, unkind, fierce,
stony-hearted, insensitive, unfeeling, cold-blooded,
unsympathetic, remorseless, ruthless, ferocious, atrocious,
Draconian or Draconic, Literary fell: Few survived the brutal
treatment in the concentration camps. 2 rude, ill-mannered,
coarse, unrefined, boorish, ill-bred, rustic, crass, uncouth,
uncultured, uncultivated, rough, crude: His brutal behaviour
made him unfit to represent the Crown.
brute adj. 1 brutish, dull, unfeeling, senseless, blind,
unintelligent, unthinking, thoughtless, mindless, unreasoning,
irrational, instinctive, physical, material; insensate,
unconscious: He was able to lift the safe without help, by
sheer brute strength.
--n. 2 animal, beast, savage: He wrote that man was the middle