1. to make or become brutal, savage, or coarse; to degrade to the level of a brute
Usage: formal or literary; transitive or intransitive

Examples

• Years of hardship embrutes the spirit if one is not careful.
• The harsh conditions of war embrute soldiers who witness too much violence.
• Constant exposure to cruelty can embrute even the gentlest person.
• He feared that poverty would embrute the children of the city.
• The novel explores how injustice embrutes society over generations.