CRUEL

barbarous, brutal, cruel, fell, roughshod, savage, vicious

(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”

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology 1

Adjective

cruel (comparative crueler or crueller or more cruel, superlative most cruel)

Intentionally causing or reveling in pain and suffering; merciless, heartless.

Synonym: sadistic

Antonym: merciful

Harsh; severe.

• Ranulph Fiennes, Cold: Extreme Adventures at the Lowest Temperatures on Earth

• C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia

Synonym: brutal

(slang) Cool; awesome; neat.

Adverb

cruel (not comparable)

(nonstandard) To a great degree; terribly.

Verb

cruel (third-person singular simple present cruels, present participle cruelling, simple past and past participle cruelled)

(chiefly, Australia, New Zealand) To spoil or ruin (one's chance of success)

(Australia, ambitransitive) To violently provoke (a child) in the belief that this will make them more assertive.

Etymology 2

Noun

cruel (countable and uncountable, plural cruels)

Alternative form of crewel

Anagrams

• lucre, ulcer

Source: Wiktionary

Cru"el (kr"l), n.

Definition: See Crewel.

Cru"el (kr*"l), a. Etym: [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.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition