Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Cruel

Cruel (kru"el) , noun

See Crewel.

Cruel (kru"el) , adjective

[French cruel, from Latin crudelis, from 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 cruelty; painful; harsh.
You have seen cruel proof of this man's strength. — Shakespeare