cruel
cruel
(kruːəl )Word forms: comparative crueller , superlative cruellest regional note: in AM, use crueler, cruelest
1. adjective
Someone who is cruel deliberately causes pain or distress to people or animals.
Children can be so cruel.
Don't you think it's cruel to cage a creature up?
cruelly adverb [ADVERB with verb]
Douglas was often cruelly tormented by jealous siblings.
2. adjective
...struggling to survive in a cruel world with which they cannot cope.
By a cruel irony, his horse came down on a flat part of the course.
cruelly adverb [usually ADVERB with verb]
His life has been cruelly shattered by an event not of his own making.
