cruel
To spoil or ruinTo spoil or ruin (one's chance of success)
Recorded US: Dvortygirl, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
» She appears to me to be cruel.
Sie scheint mir grausam zu sein. — raggione
Она кажется мне жестокой. — sharptoothed
Вона здається мені безжальною. — rozmaita
Вона здається мені жорстокою. — deniko
CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
2 senses(Australia, New Zealand)To spoil or ruin (one's chance of success)
(Australia, ambitransitive)To violently provoke (a child) in the belief that this will make them more assertive.
Examples
300 sentencesShe appears to me to be cruel.
Вона здається мені безжальною. — rozmaita
ruОна кажется мне жестокой. — sharptoothed
deSie scheint mir grausam zu sein. — raggione
I didn't think Tom would be so cruel.
Я не думав, що Том буде такий жорстокий. — deniko
I had no idea that Tom could be so cruel.
Я й гадки не мав, що Том може бути таким жорстоким. — Ahha
Don't be cruel to animals.
Не будьте жорстокими до тварин. — deniko
ruНе будьте жестоки к животным. — elsteris
deSei nicht grausam zu Tieren! — Esperantostern
Tom is cruel.
Том жорстокий. — deniko
ruТом жестокий. — odexed
deTom ist brutal. — tarsier
Origin
From Middle English cruel, borrowed from Old French cruel, from Latin crūdēlis (“hard, sevFrom Middle English cruel, borrowed from Old French cruel, from Latin crūdēlis (“hard, severe, cruel”), akin to crūdus (“raw, crude”); see crude.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
cruels, crueling, crueled, crueledLessons for this word
3 lessons- A1Present simple — Because it is a verb
- A1Past simple, regular verbs — Because of its past form
- A2Present perfect: introduction — Because of its past participle
Collocations
3 patterns- be so cruel
- cruel man
- be cruel to
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.