adjective
cruel
KROO-uhl/ˈkruːəl/
Causing pain or suffering through harshness or deliberate harm.
The cruel person takes away the umbrella and leaves the other adult in rain.
Etymology
Latin crudelis already meant unfeeling or hard-hearted and was related to crudus, “raw, rough, bloody.” The selected meaning focuses that hardness on willingness to make others suffer.
In context
so cruel a confinement my feelings are sufficiently shocked by the recital of his distress
More examples
- It is cruel to leave a dog outside without water.
- The new ruler is even crueler than the last.
- She refuses to carry out such a cruel punishment.
Forms
cruel · crueler · cruelest
cruelty noun — Harsh treatment that causes pain or suffering.
cruelly adverb — In a harsh or deliberately harmful way.