brunt

Definition

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

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).

Example Sentences

• "Unfortunately, poor areas such as those in New Orleans bore the brunt of Hurricane Katrina’s winds."
• "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 […]"
• "Though the storm raged up the East Coast, it has become increasingly apparent that New Jersey took the brunt of it."