cruel

Forms

1.Intentionally causing or reveling in pain and suffering; merciless, heartless.
- The supervisor was very cruel to Josh, as he would always give Josh the hardest, most degrading work he could find.
2.Harsh; severe.
- We're certainly having quite a cruel winter this year.
- He was physically the toughest of us and wore five layers of polar clothing, but the cold was cruel and wore us down hour after hour.
- You may be sure they watched the cliffs on their left eagerly for any sign of a break or any place where they could climb them; but those cliffs remained cruel.
3.Cool; awesome; neat.(slang)

1.To spoil or ruin (one's chance of success)
- What cruelled him was that Imperial Hotel contract.
- The Trump effect has cruelled Peter Dutton’s campaign.
- He was on the fringes of Test selection last year before a shoulder injury cruelled his chances.
2.To violently provoke (a child) in the belief that this will make them more assertive.
- Violence is apparently introduced early by the practice of "cruelling": children even in their first months are physically punished and then encouraged to seek retribution by punishing the punisher.

Rare· #4725

From Middle English cruel, borrowed from Old French cruel

From Latin crūdēlis (“hard, severe, cruel”), akin to crūdus (“raw, crude”); see crude.