cruelty
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Related to cruelty: Mental cruelty, Cruelty towards animals
cru·el·ty
(kro͞o′əl-tē)n. pl. cru·el·ties
1. The quality or condition of being cruel.
2. Something, such as a cruel act or remark, that causes pain or suffering.
3. Law The intentional infliction of physical or mental distress, especially when considered as a basis for granting a divorce.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
cruelty
(ˈkruːəltɪ)n, pl -ties
1. deliberate infliction of pain or suffering
2. the quality or characteristic of being cruel
3. a cruel action
4. (Law) law conduct that causes danger to life or limb or a threat to bodily or mental health, on proof of which a decree of divorce may be granted
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
cru•el•ty
(ˈkru əl ti)n., pl. -ties.
1. the state or quality of being cruel.
2. cruel disposition or conduct.
3. a cruel act, remark, etc.
4. Law. conduct by a spouse that causes grievous bodily harm or mental suffering.
[1175–1225; Middle English < Anglo-French, Old French < Latin]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
Cruelty
- (He’s always been) a bigger shit than two tons of manure —William Mcllvanney
- Cruel and cold as the judgment of man —Lord Byron
- Cruel as death —James Thomson
This is from a double simile, the second part being “Hungry as the grave.”
- Cruel as love or life —Algernon Charles Swinburne
- Cruel as old gravestones knocked down and scarred faceless —James Wright
- (Nothing so) cruel as panic —Robert Louis Stevenson
- (She knew well the virtues of her singular attractiveness, as) cruel as shears —George Garrett
- Cruel as winter —Lewis J. Bates
- Crueller than hell —Algernon Charles Swinburne
- Cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness —The Holy Bible
The ostrich reference appears both in Lamentations and the Book of Job.
- Cruelty on most occasions is like the wind, boisterous in itself, and exciting a murmur and bustle in all the things it moves among —Walter Savage Landor
- Evil, like good, has its own heroes —Francois, Due de La Rochefoucauld
- Had a persoality like a black hole —Jonathan Valin
In his novel, Natural Causes, from which this is taken, Valin expands upon the simile with “He sucked in everything around him and gave nothing back in return.”
- A heart like a snake —Michael V. Gazzo
- Her coarseness, her cruelty, was like bark rough with lichen —Virginia Woolf
- He’s like a cobra. No conscience —William Diehl
See Also: EVIL
- Mean as a man who’d make knuckle-bones out of his aunt —Anon
- Mean as a snake —John D. MacDonald
- Mean as cat shit —James Kirkwood
- Mean as cat’s meat —Somerset Maugham, quoted in New York Times Magazine article by Thomas F. Brady, January 24, 1954
- (That old scoundrel’s) mean as ptomaine —Richard Ford
- Mean as the man who tells his children that Santa Claus is dead —Anon
- Merciless as ambition —Joseph Joubert
- Merciless as bailiffs —Erich Maria Remarque
- Ordered her about like a convict —Nicholas Monsarrat
- Ruthless as a Gestapo thug —Raymond Chandler
- Ruthless as any sea —Beryl Markham
- So mean he would steal a dead fly from a blind spider —Anon
- Spiteful as a monkey —Frank Swinnerton
- Spiteful as the devil —Walter Savage Landor
- Treat us like mud off the bottom of the Hudson River —Rebecca West
(E) Use men ruthlessly like pawns —Honoré de Balzac
- Walk all over [another person] like a carpet —Elyse Sommer
- Whipping and abuse are like laudanum; you have to double the dose as the sensibilities decline —Harriet Beecher Stowe
- Wickedness burns like fire —The Holy Bible/Isaiah
The above has been modernized from “Wickedness burneth as the fire.”
- Would cut me down like a piece of grass —Jimmy Sangster
Similes Dictionary, 1st Edition. © 1988 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Switch to new thesaurus
Noun | 1. | cruelty - a cruel act; a deliberate infliction of pain and suffering abuse, ill-treatment, ill-usage, maltreatment - cruel or inhumane treatment; "the child showed signs of physical abuse" impalement - the act of piercing with a sharpened stake as a form of punishment or torture atrocity, inhumanity - an act of atrocious cruelty |
2. | cruelty - feelings of extreme heartlessness | |
3. | cruelty - the quality of being cruel and causing tension or annoyance murderousness - cruelty evidence by a capability to commit murder |
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
cruelty
noun brutality, spite, severity, savagery, ruthlessness, sadism, depravity, harshness, inhumanity, barbarity, callousness, viciousness, bestiality, heartlessness, brutishness, spitefulness, bloodthirstiness, mercilessness, fiendishness, hardheartedness Britain had laws against cruelty to animals but not children.
Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002
cruelty
nounA cruel act or an instance of cruel behavior:
The American Heritage® Roget's Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Translations
قَسْوَةقَسْوَه
krutostsurovostukrutnost
ondskabgrusomhed
julmuus
okrutnost
grimmd, miskunnarleysi
残酷
잔학함
okrutnost
grymhet
ความโหดร้าย
insafsızlıkzalimlikzulüm
sự tàn nhẫn
cruelty
[ˈkrʊəltɪ] N → crueldad f (to con, hacia) society for the prevention of cruelty to animals → sociedad f protectora de los animalesCollins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005
cruelty
n → Grausamkeit f → (to gegenüber); (of remark, critic also) → Unbarmherzigkeit f; cruelty to children → Kindesmisshandlung f; cruelty to animals → Tierquälerei f; physical cruelty → Grausamkeit f; mental cruelty → seelische Grausamkeit
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995
cruel
(ˈkruːəl) adjective1. pleased at causing pain; merciless. He was cruel to his dog.
2. causing distress. a cruel disappointment.
ˈcruelly adverbˈcruelty noun
Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary © 2006-2013 K Dictionaries Ltd.
cruelty
→ قَسْوَة krutost ondskab Grausamkeit σκληρότητα crueldad julmuus cruauté okrutnost crudeltà 残酷 잔학함 wreedheid grusomhet okrucieństwo crueldade жестокость grymhet ความโหดร้าย zulüm sự tàn nhẫn 残忍Multilingual Translator © HarperCollins Publishers 2009
cruelty
n crueldad fEnglish-Spanish/Spanish-English Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.