Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Date: 1200-1300
Language: Old French
Origin: Latin crudelis, from crudus; CRUDE1

cruel

 adjective
     
cru‧el S3
1 making someone suffer or feel unhappy:
His death was a cruel blow.
Sometimes life seems unbearably cruel.
2 deliberately hurting people or animals [≠ kind]:
The prisoner was a hard, cruel man.
cruel jokes about mothers-in-law
It was a cruel, tactless thing to say.
cruel to
She was often cruel to her sister.
3

be cruel to be kind

to do something to someone that will make them upset or unhappy in order to help them in another way
—cruelly adverb:
He was cruelly neglected by his parents.
WORD FOCUS: unkind WORD FOCUS: unkind
similar words: nasty, cruel, mean, inconsiderate, thoughtless, insensitive, unsympathetic, hard-hearted

➔ See also unkind
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

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