Wordnet 3.0
NOUN (1)
1.
main force of a blow etc;
- Example: "bore the brunt of the attack"
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Brunt \Brunt\ (br[u^]nt), n. [OE. brunt, bront, fr. Icel. bruna
to rush; cf. Icel. brenna to burn. Cf. Burn, v. t.]
1. The heat, or utmost violence, of an onset; the strength or
greatest fury of any contention; as, the brunt of a
battle.
[1913 Webster]
2. The force of a blow; shock; collision. "And heavy brunt of
cannon ball." --Hudibras.
[1913 Webster]
It is instantly and irrecoverably scattered by our
first brunt with some real affair of common life.
--I. Taylor.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
brunt
n 1: main force of a blow etc; "bore the brunt of the attack"
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
37 Moby Thesaurus words for "brunt":
appulse, bulldozing, bulling, bump, burden, cannon, carambole,
carom, clash, collision, concussion, crack-up, crash, crump,
crunch, encounter, full force, hammering, impact, impingement,
mauling, meeting, onslaught, onus, percussion, ramming, shock,
sideswipe, sledgehammering, smash, smash-up, smashing, stress,
thrusting, violence, weight, whomp