Brunt means the main force or worst part of something difficult or unpleasant. When you bear the brunt of something, you experience the hardest hit or take the heaviest impact.

Picture a line of students walking into a strong wind: the person at the front bears the brunt of the wind, feeling its full force while everyone behind them gets some shelter. In a similar way, when a teacher gets frustrated about late homework, the first student to arrive might bear the brunt of her irritation, even though others were late too.

The word often appears in the phrase bear the brunt, meaning to absorb the main impact or suffer the worst effects. Coastal towns bear the brunt of hurricanes, feeling the strongest winds and heaviest rain. When a family faces hard times, sometimes one person bears the brunt of the worry or extra work.

Interestingly, you can't really have “a little brunt” or “some brunt.” The brunt is always the main force, the heaviest part, the worst of it. It's the difference between getting splashed by a puddle and standing exactly where a car drives through, taking the full spray.