Hypertext Webster Gateway: "cruel"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
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.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Cruel \Cru"el\ (kr[udd]"[e^]l), n.
See {Crewel}.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
cruel
adj 1: 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: (of circumstances; especially weather) causing suffering;
"brutal weather"; "northern winters can be cruel"; "a
cruel world"; "a harsh climate; "a rigorous climate";
"unkind winters" [syn: {brutal}, {harsh}, {rigorous}, {unkind}]
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