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What is "cruel"

Crossword clues for cruel

cruel
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
cruel
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a cruel fate
▪ She suffered a cruel fate at the hands of her captors.
a cruel/devastating/crushing blow (=extremely hard to bear)
▪ Her loss came as a devastating blow to her father.
a cruel/sick joke (=very unkind)
▪ When I heard he had cancer, at first I thought it was some kind of sick joke.
a new/cruel/unexpected/strange etc twist
▪ The robbery took a deadly new twist as the robber pulled out a gun.
▪ an unexpected twist in the plot
cold/cruel (=unfriendly or unkind)
▪ He smiled, but his blue eyes were cold and cruel.
tragic/cruel/bitter etc irony
▪ The tragic irony is that the drug was supposed to save lives.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
as
▪ Her flailing hand slipped down to the pack, wrenching its cords open, just as cruel fingers seized her arm.
▪ This process has included verbal denigration as well as cruel and unusual treatment of those who are traditionally perceived as outsiders.
▪ Rebekah's scheming is as cruel and as ruthless as Sarah's treatment of Hagar and Ishmael.
▪ Not very nice, but hardly as cruel as what would follow.
▪ They think they look all sweet, and underneath they're as cruel as cruel.
▪ The effort to deny these needs is as cruel as the pre-feminist effort to deny women their minds.
▪ Bonds can be as cruel as torture if applied with enough viciousness.
▪ Let me show you that all men aren't as cruel and immature as your retarded merchant banker.
how
▪ How I have missed you and how cruel your mistress is.
▪ Loads of people didn't half tell the council how cruel it was.
▪ But after I left her, I realized how cruel I had been.
▪ He reminisced how loyal he had been to his firm and how cruel he felt was his reward.
▪ Poor child! How cruel he had been to her!
more
▪ What is certain is that the discipline imposed on them was more complex, more capricious and more cruel.
most
▪ Without failure, Earth might never discover your power and strength to defuse the most cruel of destructive experiences in human lives.
▪ Now, most cruel of all, it was Federer, and Wimbledon will surely never be the same again.
so
▪ He was being so unfair, so cruel!
▪ No, how can I be so cruel?
▪ How could his kidnappers be so cruel and not explain their reasons why?
▪ It destroys him, I am so cruel.
▪ Coincidence couldn't be so cruel, so twisted, could it?
▪ It seems so cruel that I did not know by instinct when the blow fell on two hearts so close to mine!
▪ He was so cruel at times, so utterly ruthless.
▪ If Oliver can only come part of the way with us it will not seem so cruel.
too
▪ It's too cruel if you are gone.
▪ No weapon would be too cruel, no tactic too extreme, on either side.
▪ He had been too cruel to her.
▪ There is one way to sharpen their appetites, but it's too cruel to mention.
▪ But there are some truths too cruel, before the faces one has to announce them to, to be told.
very
▪ To dream can be very cruel.
▪ I had heard that her husband had been very cruel to her.
▪ It had been a very cruel murder.
▪ That his bravery was ended so abruptly and unexpectedly seems very cruel.
▪ Perhaps you know that I married a man who was very cruel to me.
▪ And again, children can be very cruel.
▪ If anyone asks how you treated me, I will tell them the truth, that you were very cruel to me.
▪ Some of our friends and neighbours were very cruel to me.
■ NOUN
blow
▪ That was a cruel blow for Howard Wilkinson's team, who had made a committed, controlled and commanding start.
▪ This had been a cruel blow, but it wouldn't stop her from ensuring that justice was done.
▪ It would have been an unnecessary and cruel blow for her to see her old home in its state of decay.
▪ The fact Pears could be ruled out of the crunch game at Molineux is a cruel blow after his superb season.
▪ It is a cruel blow and one that again underlines the inconsistency of the red card law.
▪ He wanted to give comfort, and protect her from the cruel blow life had dealt her.
▪ Yet with their very first attack, the visitors struck a cruel blow.
irony
▪ By a cruel irony, it was the sixth anniversary of their engagement.
▪ There was, indeed, a kind of cruel irony in the collapse of the irrigation companies.
▪ This is a particularly cruel irony because as the 1911 census revealed doctors had the smallest families of all categories of occupations.
joke
▪ He hated Big Tom Fish, with his cruel jokes and flashing green eyes and rough workman's hands.
▪ But the free-range, corn-fed chicken was the victim of a cruel joke.
▪ The gods were enjoying their own cruel joke!
man
▪ By his hard eyes, and set mouth, by the way he spoke, that he was a cruel man?
▪ Archelaus was a cruel man and Joseph has no wish to live under his rule.
▪ Mr Sowerberry was not a cruel man, but he had no choice.
▪ Many people have condemned Herod as a cruel man and certainly he showed a cruel streak, especially towards his own family.
▪ Pepe has a lot in common with Boris, thought Ellis: they're both strong, cruel men without decency or compassion.
▪ The same cruel man as before.
▪ My prisoner was clearly a hard, cruel man.
▪ This Shylock was a money-lender and a cruel man - everyone hated him.
twist
▪ These accounts portray life behind bars as a cruel twist on the Hobbesian description of life: nasty, brutish and long.
world
▪ It can also be a hard, cruel world where your face and figure may not fit.
▪ But her steely determination to make her way in a cruel world has done its own damage.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a long cruel winter
▪ Brand was a cruel and intimidating man who abused his children and his wife.
▪ Children can sometimes be very cruel.
▪ He didn't seem the sort of man to be cruel on purpose.
▪ Her parents were very cruel to her when she was young.
▪ I think it's cruel to keep dogs locked up inside all day.
▪ It was cruel of you to frighten the poor boy like that.
▪ Killing animals just for their skins seems cruel.
▪ Lyle was always playing cruel jokes on his little sister.
▪ People say showbusiness can be very cruel.
▪ She married a man who was very cruel to her.
▪ The electric chair is possibly the cruelest method of execution.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A vindictive, cruel policy of repression also maimed the economy.
▪ An unknowable, harsh and cruel society had destroyed his father for no apparent reason.
▪ I knew I was cruel in letting the walks go on as if nothing had changed.
▪ In the second place, he invented fishnets, a cruel device whereby innocent fish leap weeping to your frying pans.
▪ It had been a very cruel murder.
▪ The heavy mouth, the yellow skin, the cruel eyes - these told the real story.
▪ The mortals seemed miserable and the children cruel and now there was nothing left of the spectacle.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Cruel

Cruel \Cru"el\ (kr[udd]"[e^]l), a. [F. cruel, fr. L. crudelis, fr. crudus. See Crude.]

  1. 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.
    --Jer. vi. 22,23.

  2. Causing, or fitted to cause, pain, grief, or misery.

    Cruel wars, wasting the earth.
    --Milton.

    Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath for it was cruel.
    --Gen. xlix. 7.

  3. Attended with cruetly; painful; harsh.

    You have seen cruel proof of this man's strength.
    --Shak.

Cruel

Cruel \Cru"el\ (kr[udd]"[e^]l), n. See Crewel.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
cruel

early 13c., from Old French cruel (12c.), earlier crudel, from Latin crudelis "rude, unfeeling; cruel, hard-hearted," related to crudus "rough, raw, bloody" (see crude). Related: Cruelly. Latin medial -d- began to disappear 10c. in French: compare chance/cadentia, cheoir/cadere, joyeux/gaudiosus, juif/judaeus, moyen/medianus, obéir/obedire, séance/sedentia.

Wiktionary
cruel

  1. 1 Not nice; mean; heartless. 2 (context slang English) cool; awesome; neat. v

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

Related phrases:
WordNet
cruel

  1. adj. lacking or showing kindness or compassion or mercy [syn: unkind]

  2. (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]

  3. (of weapons or instruments) causing suffering and pain; "brutal instruments of torture"; "cruel weapons of war" [syn: brutal]

  4. used of circumstances (especially weather) that cause suffering; "brutal weather"; "northern winters can be cruel"; "a cruel world"; "a harsh climate"; "a rigorous climate"; "unkind winters" [syn: brutal, harsh, rigorous, unkind]

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Cruel (solitaire)

Cruel is a video game for Microsoft Windows based on Perseverance, a solitaire card game. Cruel was published by Microsoft in 1990 as part of the Microsoft Entertainment Pack for Windows 3.0. Cruel has since been remade for other platforms by several vendors.

Cruel (disambiguation)

To be cruel is to cause, be indifferent to or take pleasure from suffering.

Cruel may also refer to:

Cruel (song)

"Cruel" is a pop rock track by New Zealand singer Dane Rumble. "Cruel" is the third solo single by Rumble, which was released as a digital download single on 23 November 2009. "Cruel" became Rumble's third consecutive top 20 hit in New Zealand, peaking at #3 on the Official New Zealand Singles Chart. The single was certified Platinum on 22 March 2010, selling over 15,000 copies.

Cruel (The Veronicas song)

"Cruel" is a song by The Veronicas from their self-titled third studio album. It was written by The Veronicas twin sisters Jessica Origliasso and Lisa Origliasso, along with Rob Ellmore, Leah Haywood, Daniel James; production was handled by Dreamlab and Ruffian. The song was released as the third single from The Veronicas' third studio album and debuted on Australian radio on 21 January 2015.

"Cruel" was well received by critics who felt that it would be a radio hit. In Australia, "Cruel" debuted and peaked at number 53 on the Australian Singles Chart, becoming one of their lowest charting songs to date.

Cruel (Human Nature song)

"Cruel" is a song by Human Nature, released as the first single from their album second studio album Counting Down. The song peaked at No. 14 in Australia and was certified Gold. Human Nature performed the song live at the ARIA Music Awards of 1998 and on Hey Hey It's Saturday.

Cruel (Snakehips song)

"Cruel" is a song by British production duo Snakehips, featuring British singer and songwriter Zayn. It was released as a single on 15 July 2016 by Sony Music UK and Columbia Records. The song was written and composed by Snakehips, Cass Lowe, Erik Hassle and Zayn in Los Angeles and London.

Related phrases:

Usage examples of "cruel".

So that meseems thou mayest abide here in a life far better than wandering amongst uncouth folk, perilous and cruel.

Howbeit he had looked on the King closely and wisely, and deemed that he was both cruel and guileful, so that he rejoiced that he had spoken naught of Ursula, and he was minded to keep her within gates all the while they abode at Cheaping-Knowe.

Does the man make anything of defrauding or defaming or hating another even to death, or of committing adultery with his wife, or of being cruel to him out of revenge, the while having the desire in mind to get the upper hand of all and to possess the goods of all others, thus regarding others in comparison with himself as insignificant and of little worth?

Julius was ageless and ancient, child and crone, a cruel sodomite and a tender saint.

Serena has a cruel and ungrateful appearance, which, according to the circumstances of the action, may be aggravated, or excused, by the consideration of her tender age.

This lowly Thought, which once would talk with me Of a bright seraph sitting crowned on high, Found such a cruel foe it died, and so My Spirit wept, the grief is hot even now-- And said, Alas for me!

But on the other hand, Ana had always found Bee frus-tratingly shallow and occasionally downright cruel.

Eye of Malsum, Angekok and his cruel price for hospitality and the shadowy shapelessness of a darkling demon summoned from out an icy sky!

All his dreams of a life with Astasia Orlova now seemed like a cruel delusion.

One of the chiefs of the Roxolani had formerly deserted the standard of Hermanric, and the cruel tyrant had condemned the innocent wife of the traitor to be torn asunder by wild horses.

In the two chapters immediately following, VIII and IX, the reader will learn something of the loss of all moral standards and the cruel, lawless violence to which the atheistic, anarchistic materialism of I.

Peace with Auricular Confession is surely the most cruel sarcasm ever uttered in human language.

The cruel incongruity of that stab of angelic joy in the midst of the pain of dying is the emotional nexus linking the autobiographical vignette to the nightmarish fantasy.

The cruel and avaricious desires of the monarchs against these thrifty and industrious people added fuel to the flames of the popular passion, and even a fanatic zeal arose among the Jews to perish as martyrs to their ancient religion.

Cruel gifts from Beane, I guessed, like the brand-new jeans in the van.