cruel
Part of speech: adj
verb
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: From Middle English cruel, borrowed from Old French cruel, from Latin crūdēlis (“hard, severe, cruel”), akin to crūdus (“raw, crude”); see crude.
Inflected forms:
form: crueler
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: crueller
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: more cruel
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: cruelest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: cruellest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: most cruel
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: cruell
pos: adj
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: cruels
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: crueling
pos: verb
tags: US
participle
present
form: cruelling
pos: verb
tags: UK
participle
present
form: crueled
pos: verb
tags: US
participle
past
form: crueled
pos: verb
tags: US
past
form: cruelled
pos: verb
tags: UK
participle
past
form: cruelled
pos: verb
tags: UK
past
form: cruell
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: Intentionally causing or reveling in pain and suffering; merciless, heartless.
pos: adj
examples: The supervisor was very cruel to Josh, as he would always give Josh the hardest, most degrading work he could find.
gloss: Harsh; severe.
pos: adj
examples: We're certainly having quite a cruel winter this year.
The thought that something might befall him that would leave her entirely at the mercy of this beast caused him greater anxiety than the probability that almost certain death awaited her should she be left entirely alone upon the outskirts of the cruel forest.
You may be sure they watched the cliffs on their left eagerly for any sign of a break or any place where they could climb them; but those cliffs remained cruel.
He was physically the toughest of us and wore five layers of polar clothing, but the cold was cruel and wore us down hour after hour.
gloss: Cool; awesome; neat.
pos: adj
tags: slang
gloss: To spoil or ruin (one's chance of success)
pos: verb
tags: Australia
New-Zealand
examples: What cruelled him was that Imperial Hotel contract.
He was on the fringes of Test selection last year before a shoulder injury cruelled his chances.
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.
The Trump effect has cruelled Peter Dutton’s campaign.
gloss: To violently provoke (a child) in the belief that this will make them more assertive.
pos: verb
tags: Australia
ambitransitive
examples: 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.
[…] 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.
Synonyms: barbarous
bowelless
brutal
compassionless
cruel
demonic
despiteful
diabolic
diabolical
fell
incessive
inclement
inhuman
inhumane
malicious
merciless
nasty
nonhumane
pitiless
remorseless
rotten
ruthless
sadistic
savage
spiteful
truculent
unbenevolent
unbenign
unkind
unmerciful
unpitiful
unpitying
Antonyms: kindly
merciful
Related words: crude
cruelty
ill-disposed
ill-intentioned
ill-natured
stern
Derived words: be cruel to be kind
cruel-hearted
cruelize
cruelly
cruel mistress
cruelness
cruelsome
goodbye, cruel world
over-cruel
overcruel
uncruel
Translations: