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Webster 1913 Edition


Cruel

Cru′el

(krṳ′ĕl)
,
Noun.
See
Crewel
.

Cru′el

(krṳ′ĕl)
,
Adj.
[F.
cruel
, fr. L.
crudelis
, fr.
crudus
. See
Crude
.]
1.
Disposed to give pain to others; willing or pleased to hurt, torment, or afflict; destitute of sympathetic kindness and pity; savage; inhuman; hard-hearted; merciless.
Behold a people cometh from the north country; . . . they are
cruel
and have no mercy.
Jer. vi. 22,23.
2.
Causing, or fitted to cause, pain, grief, or misery.
Cruel
wars, wasting the earth.
Milton.
Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath for it was
cruel
.
Gen. xlix. 7.
3.
Attended with cruetly; painful; harsh.
You have seen
cruel
proof of this man’s strength.
Shakespeare

Webster 1828 Edition


Cruel

CRUEL

,
Adj.
[L. See Crude and Rude.]
1.
Disposed to give pain to others, in body or mind; willing or pleased to torment, vex or afflict; inhuman; destitute of pity, compassion or kindness; fierce; ferocious; savage; barbarous; hardhearted; applied to persons or their dispositions.
They are cruel, and have no mercy. Jeremiah 6.
2.
Inhuman; barbarous; savage; causing pain, grief or distress; exerted in tormenting, vexing or afflicting.
Cursed be their wrath, for it was cruel. Genesis 44.
The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. Proverbs 12.
Others had trials of cruel mockings. Hebrews 11.

Definition 2024


cruel

cruel

English

Adjective

cruel (comparative crueler or crueller or more cruel, superlative cruelest or cruellest or most cruel)

  1. Not nice; mean; heartless.
    The supervisor was very cruel to Josh, as he would always give Josh the hardest, most degrading work he could find.
  2. (slang) Cool; awesome; neat.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

cruel (third-person singular simple present cruels, present participle cruelling, simple past and past participle cruelled)

  1. (chiefly Australia, New Zealand) To spoil or ruin (one's chance of success)
    • 1937, Vance Palmer, Legend for Sanderson, Sydney: Angus & Robertson, p. 226,
      What cruelled him was that Imperial Hotel contract.
    • 2014, The Sydney Morning Herald, 1 April, 2014,
      He was on the fringes of Test selection last year before a shoulder injury cruelled his chances.
    • 2015, The Age, 8 September, 2015,
      A shortage of berth space for mega container ships will restrict capacity at Melbourne's port, cruelling Labor's attempts to get maximum value from its privatisation, a leading shipping expert has warned.
  2. (Australia) To violently provoke (a child) in the belief that this will make them more assertive.
    • 2007, Stewart ****, "Reconciliation as Domination" in Scott Veitch (ed.), Law and the Politics of Reconciliation, Routledge, 2016, p. 83,
      Violence is apparently introduced early by the practice of "cruelling": children even in their first months are physically punished and then encouraged to seek retribution by punishing the punisher.
    • 2009, Mark Colvin, ABC, "Peter Sutton discusses the politics of suffering in Aboriginal communities," 2 July, 2009,
      [] I was referring to the area where you were talking about this practice of cruelling; the pinching of babies, sometimes so hard that their skin breaks and may go septic.

External links

  • cruel in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • cruel in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

Anagrams


Asturian

Etymology

From Latin crūdēlis.

Adjective

cruel (epicene, plural crueles)

  1. cruel

Related terms


Catalan

Etymology

From Latin crūdēlis.

Adjective

cruel m, f (masculine and feminine plural cruels)

  1. cruel

Derived terms


French

Etymology

From Latin crūdēlis. Compare also the Old French form crual, possibly from a Vulgar Latin form *crudalis.

Pronunciation

Adjective

cruel m (feminine singular cruelle, masculine plural cruels, feminine plural cruelles)

  1. cruel
  2. hard, painful

Synonyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Anagrams


Galician

Etymology

From Latin crūdēlis.

Adjective

cruel m, f (plural crueis)

  1. cruel

Derived terms

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Middle English

Adjective

cruel

  1. cruel

Portuguese

Etymology

From Old Portuguese cruel, from Latin crūdēlis.

Pronunciation

  • (Portugal) IPA(key): /kɾu.ˈɛɫ/
  • Rhymes: -ɛw

Adjective

cruel (plural cruéis, comparable)

  1. cruel

Derived terms

Related terms


Spanish

Etymology

From Latin crūdēlis.

Adjective

cruel m, f (plural crueles)

  1. cruel

Derived terms

Related terms