Usually means: Deliberately causing pain or suffering.
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We found 34 dictionaries that define the word cruel:

General (28 matching dictionaries)
  1. cruel: Merriam-Webster.com
  2. cruel: Oxford Learner's Dictionaries
  3. cruel: American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
  4. cruel: Collins English Dictionary
  5. cruel: Vocabulary.com
  6. Cruel, cruel: Wordnik
  7. cruel: Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary
  8. cruel: Wiktionary
  9. cruel: Webster's New World College Dictionary, 4th Ed.
  10. cruel: The Wordsmyth English Dictionary-Thesaurus
  11. cruel: Infoplease Dictionary
  12. Cruel, cruel: Dictionary.com
  13. cruel: Online Etymology Dictionary
  14. cruel: Cambridge Essential American English Dictionary
  15. Cruel (Alfie Arcuri song), Cruel (Human Nature song), Cruel (Snakehips song), Cruel (The Veronicas song), Cruel (Tori Amos song), Cruel (solitaire), Cruel: Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
  16. Cruel: Online Plain Text English Dictionary
  17. cruel: Webster's Revised Unabridged, 1913 Edition
  18. cruel: Rhymezone
  19. cruel, cruel, cruel(le): AllWords.com Multi-Lingual Dictionary
  20. cruel: Webster's 1828 Dictionary
  21. Cruel: E Cobham Brewer, The Reader's Handbook
  22. Cruel: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898)
  23. cruel: Free Dictionary
  24. cruel: Mnemonic Dictionary
  25. cruel: Dictionary/thesaurus
  26. cruel: Wikimedia Commons US English Pronunciations

Business (1 matching dictionary)
  1. cruel: Legal dictionary

Computing (1 matching dictionary)
  1. cruel: Encyclopedia

Medicine (1 matching dictionary)
  1. cruel: Medical dictionary

Miscellaneous (2 matching dictionaries)
  1. Brilliant Dream Dictionary (No longer online)
  2. cruel: Idioms

Slang (1 matching dictionary)
  1. Cruel: Urban Dictionary

(Note: See crueler as well.)

Definitions from Wiktionary (
)
American English Definition British English Definition
adjective:  Intentionally causing or reveling in pain and suffering; merciless, heartless.
adjective:  Harsh; severe.
adjective:  (slang) Cool; awesome; neat.
adverb:  (nonstandard) To a great degree; terribly.
verb:  (chiefly Australia, New Zealand) To spoil or ruin (one's chance of success)
verb:  (Australia, transitive, intransitive) To violently provoke (a child) in the belief that this will make them more assertive.
noun:  Alternative form of crewel [Worsted yarn, slackly twisted, used for embroidery.]

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    blood red,     charcoal,     ash gray,     poison green,     bruise purple, more...



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