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cruel

adj
/ˈkɹuːəl/

Etymology

From Middle English cruel, borrowed from Old French cruel, from Latin crūdēlis (“hard, severe, cruel”), akin to crūdus (“raw, crude”); see crude.

  1. derived from crūdēlis
  2. derived from cruel
  3. inherited from cruel

Definitions

  1. Intentionally causing or reveling in pain and suffering

    Intentionally causing or reveling in pain and suffering; merciless, heartless.

    • The supervisor was very cruel to Josh, as he would always give Josh the hardest, most degrading work he could find.

  2. Harsh

    Harsh; severe.

    • We're certainly having quite a cruel winter this year.
    • 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.

  3. Cool

    Cool; awesome; neat.

  4. ›+ 4 more definitions

    1. To a great degree

      To a great degree; terribly.

      • "But I've served 'im ten years, and I'm fond of 'im, and, mind you, 'e's a great man, when all's said an' done, and it's an honor to serve 'im. But 'e does try one cruel at times."
      • 'I've never got arthritis, though my old dad had it something cruel.'

    2. To spoil or ruin (one's chance of success)

      • 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.

    3. To violently provoke (a child) in the belief that this will make them more assertive.

      • 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.

    4. Alternative form of crewel.

The neighborhood

Derived

be cruel to be kind, cruel-hearted, cruelize, cruelly, cruel mistress, cruelness, cruelsome, goodbye, cruel world, over-cruel, overcruel, uncruel

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at cruel. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01cruel02cool03green04midway05concentrated06intense07severe08harsh

A definitional loop anchored at cruel. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

8 hops · closes at cruel

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA