Etymology : Middle English, from Old French, from Latin crudelis, from crudus
Pronunciation : 'krü(-&) l
Function : adjective
Date : 14th century
1. heartless, unkind. cruel\cru"el\ (kr&udd;"&ebreve;l), n. see:
crewel.cruel \cru"el\ (kr&udd;"&ebreve;l), a. [f. cruel, fr. l. crudelis, fr. crudus. see:
crude.].
2. 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. vi. 22.
3. 2. causing, or fitted to cause, pain, grief, or misery. cruel wars, wasting the earth. cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath for it was cruel. xlix.
4. 3. attended with cruetly; painful; harsh. you have seen cruel proof of this man's strength.cruel adj.
5. lacking or showing kindness or compassion or mercy [syn: unkind].
6. (of persons or their actions) able or disposed to inflict pain or suffering; "a barbarous crime"; "brutal beatings"; "cruel tortures"; "stalin's roughshod treatment of the kulaks"; "a savage slap"; "vicious kicks" [syn: barbarous, brutal, fell, roughshod, savage, vicious].
7. (of weapons or instruments) causing suffering and pain; "brutal instruments of torture"; "cruel weapons of war" [syn: brutal].
8. (of circumstances; especially weather) causing suffering; "brutal weather"; "northern winters can be cruel"; "a cruel world"; "a harsh climate; "a rigorous climate"; "unkind winters" [syn: brutal, harsh, rigorous, unkind].
9. See Crewel.
10. 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.
11. Causing, or fitted to cause, pain, grief, or misery.
12. Attended with cruetly; painful; harsh. lacking or showing kindness or compassion or mercy.
13. cru·el crueller cruellest in AM, use crueler, crueles.
14. Someone who is cruel deliberately causes pain or distress to people or animals. Children can be so cruel Don't you think it's cruel to cage a creature up? ¡Ù kind + cruelly cru·el·ly Douglas was often cruelly tormented by jealous siblings.
15. A situation or event that is cruel is very harsh and causes people distress. struggling to survive in a cruel world with which they cannot cope + cruelly cru·el·ly His life has been cruelly shattered by an event not of his own making.