Cruel
adj, adv, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Alternative form of crewel. alt-of, alternative, countable, uncountable
- 1 To spoil or ruin (one's chance of success) Australia, New-Zealand
"What cruelled him was that Imperial Hotel contract."
- 2 To violently provoke (a child) in the belief that this will make them more assertive. Australia, ambitransitive
"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."
- 1 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; severe.
"We're certainly having quite a cruel winter this year."
- 3 Cool; awesome; neat. slang
- 1 (of persons or their actions) able or disposed to inflict pain or suffering wordnet
- 1 To a great degree; terribly. nonstandard, not-comparable
""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.""
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"It is cruel of you to find fault with her."
Etymology
From Middle English cruel, borrowed from Old French cruel, from Latin crūdēlis (“hard, severe, cruel”), akin to crūdus (“raw, crude”); see crude.
Related phrases
More for "cruel"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.