Definition of "brunt"

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 […]

1862, Arthur Young, John Chalmers Morton, The Farmer's Calendar

Though the storm raged up the East Coast, it has become increasingly apparent that New Jersey took the brunt of it.

2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, “New Jersey reels from storm's thrashing”, in The New York Times‎

Tech[elles]. I heare them come, ſhall wee encounter them?Tam[burlaine]. Keep all your ſtandings, and not ſtir a foot,Myſelfe will bide the danger of the brunt.

c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, (please specify the page)

"… I say." Ripton resumed the serious intonation, "do you think they'll ever suspect us?""What if they do? We must brunt it."We brunted the storm.

1859, George Meredith, chapter 7, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall