cruel

• cruell (obsolete)

• enPR: kro͞oəl, IPA^(key): /ˈkɹuːəl/, (also) /kɹuːl/, /kɹʊəl/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (General Australian):

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• Rhymes: -uːəl, -uːl, -ʊəl
• Hyphenation: cru‧el

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

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

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

   Synonym: sadistic

   Antonym: merciful

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

2. Harsh; severe.

   Synonym: brutal

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

   • 2013, Ranulph Fiennes, Cold: Extreme Adventures at the Lowest Temperatures on Earth:

     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.

   • 1951, C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia:

     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. (slang) Cool; awesome; neat.

cruel (not comparable)

1. (nonstandard) To a great degree; terribly.
   • 1913, Arthur Conan Doyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Poison Belt , London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     "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."

   • 2016, Kerry Greenwood, Murder and Mendelssohn, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 219:

     'I've never got arthritis, though my old dad had it something cruel.'

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, page 226:

     What cruelled him was that Imperial Hotel contract.

   • 2014 April 1, The Sydney Morning Herald:

     He was on the fringes of Test selection last year before a shoulder injury cruelled his chances.

   • 2015 September 8, The Age:

     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, transitive, intransitive) To violently provoke (a child) in the belief that this will make them more assertive.
   • 2007, Stewart Motha, “Reconciliation as Domination”, in Scott Veitch, editor, Law and the Politics of Reconciliation‎, Routledge, published 2016, page 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.

cruel (countable and uncountable, plural cruels)

1. Alternative form of crewel.

• “cruel”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “cruel”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

• lucre, ulcer

Inherited from Latin crūdēlis.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɾwel/,
• Hyphenation: cruel

cruel (epicene, plural crueles)

1. cruel

Inherited from Latin crūdēlis.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia)

cruel m or f (masculine and feminine plural cruels)

1. cruel

• cruelment

• crueltat
• cru

• “cruel” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “cruel” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Inherited from Old French cruel, from Latin crūdēlis; either remade based on the Latin or evolved from the Old French form crual, possibly from a Vulgar Latin form *crūdālis.

• IPA^(key): /kʁy.ɛl/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophones: cruels, cruelle, cruelles

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

1. cruel
2. hard, painful

• féroce
• pénible

• cruellement

• cruauté
• cru

• “cruel”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

• culer
• recul

Inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese cruel, from Latin crūdēlis.

• IPA^(key): /kɾuˈɛl/
• Rhymes: -ɛl
• Hyphenation: cru‧el

cruel m or f (plural crueis)

1. cruel

• “cruel”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2024
• “cruel” in Dicionário Estraviz de galego (2014).

• kruell, cruele, cruwel, crewel, cruell, cruwelle, crewelle, cruelle, crowell

From Old French crual, from Latin crūdēlis.

• IPA^(key): /kriu̯ˈɛːl/, /ˈkriu̯ɛl/, /ˈkriu̯əl/, /ˈkruəl/

cruel

1. Merciless, cruel; revelling in another's pain.
2. Deleterious, injurious; conducive to suffering.
3. Unbearable, saddening, terrifying.
4. Strict, unforgiving, mean; not nice.
5. Savage, vicious, dangerous; displaying ferocity.
6. Bold, valiant, heroic (in war)
7. (rare) Sharp, acrid, bitter-tasting.

• cruelheed
• cruelly
• cruelnesse
• cruelte

• English: cruel
• Scots: cruel

• “crūē̆l, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-09-12.

Inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese cruel, from Latin crūdēlis.

• Rhymes: (Portugal) -ɛl, (Brazil) -ɛw
• Hyphenation: cru‧el

cruel m or f (plural cruéis)

1. (of a person or creature) cruel (that intentionally causes or revels in pain and suffering)

   Synonym: bárbaro

   O algoz era conhecido por ser extremamente cruel.

   The executioner was known for being extremely cruel.

2. (of a situation or occurrence) cruel; harsh; severe

   Synonyms: severo, terrível, pesado

   Ele recebeu uma cruel mas merecida sentença.

   He received a harsh but deserved sentenced.

3. (of a doubt or question) distressful

   Synonym: terrível

   Que dúvida cruel!

   What a horrible doubt!

4. (of an occurrence) bloody; violent

   Synonyms: sangrento, cruento, sanguinolento

   Foi uma batalha cruel.

   It was a bloody battle.

Inherited from Old Spanish, from Latin crūdēlis.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɾwel/
• Rhymes: -el
• Syllabification: cruel

cruel m or f (masculine and feminine plural crueles)

1. cruel
2. mean

   Synonym: malo

• “cruel”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10