(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"
cruel
How to use cruel in a sentence. Example sentences and definitions for cruel.
Editorial note
This may seem like a cruel joke but it's really not.
Quick take
(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"
Meaning at a glance
The clearest senses and uses of cruel gathered in one view.
Definitions
Core meanings and parts of speech for cruel.
adjective
(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"
See also: barbarous, brutal, fell, roughshod, savage, vicious
Example sentences
This may seem like a cruel joke but it's really not.
So, of course, they're doubly cruel to women.
How cruel is it to discuss him publicly, and diagnose him publicly?
And it often struck me as cruel when other people would try to talk to me about things in a well meaning way but still could not/would not meet my needs.
I actually understand their emotional reaction: They are doomed to a cruel fate and my presence just makes them all the more painfully aware of how unfair it is.
Unless there's a backstory or a history of such behavior from the guy, it's awfully cruel to rob a guy of his livelihood without weighing all the facts.
Stephen Fry, \n who saw the GT200 being used by Kenyan rangers in an \n attempt to catch poachers, described the misinformation \n which accompanied the devices as "cynical, cruel and \n monstrous.
I don't know if this makes me cruel, but whenever people talk about donating money to starving children in Africa, I always imagine the following: If I were to donate some amount of money to starving children in an impoverished nation every year I could, theoretically, bring some of them out of starvation.
I don't know why but either there's a class of developers who feel personally threatened by women in their chosen profession, or it's personal: some individual has believed themselves to be entitled to that woman's attention & when it was not forthcoming begin a cruel campaign of punishment to make up for the perceived insult.
Frequently asked questions
Short answers drawn from the clearest meanings and examples for this word.
How do you use cruel in a sentence?
This may seem like a cruel joke but it's really not.
What does cruel mean?
(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"
What part of speech is cruel?
cruel is commonly used as adjective.