cru·el crueller cruellest in AM, use crueler, cruelest1. 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? kind + cruelly cru·el·ly Douglas was often cruelly tormented by jealous siblings
A situation or event that is cruel is very harsh and causes people distress. struggling to survive in a cruel world with which they cannot cope + cruelly cru·el·ly His life has been cruelly shattered by an event not of his own making
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
(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"
(of weapons or instruments) causing suffering and pain; "brutal instruments of torture"; "cruel weapons of war"
used of circumstances (especially weather) that cause suffering; "brutal weather"; "northern winters can be cruel"; "a cruel world"; "a harsh climate"; "a rigorous climate"; "unkind winters"