cruelとは

意味・読み方・使い方

語源 1

From Middle English cruel, borrowed from Old French cruel, from Latin crūdēlis (“hard, severe, cruel”), akin to crūdus (“raw, crude”); see crude.

形容詞

cruel (comparative crueler または crueller または more cruel, superlative cruelest または cruellest または most cruel)

1. Intentionally causing or reveling in pain and suffering; merciless, heartless.

   The supervisor was very cruel to Josh, as he would always give Josh the hardest, most degrading work he could find.

   Synonym: sadistic

   Antonym: merciful

2. Harsh; severe.
   • 2013, Ranulph Fiennes, Cold: Extreme Adventures at the Lowest Temperatures on Earth

     He was physically the toughest of us and wore five layers of polar clothing, but the cold was cruel and wore us down hour after hour.

   • 1951 C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia

     You may be sure they watched the cliffs on their left eagerly for any sign of a break or any place where they could climb them; but those cliffs remained cruel.

   Synonym: brutal

3. (slang) Cool; awesome; neat.

派生語

• be cruel to be kind
• cruel-hearted
• cruelly
• cruelness
• cruelsome
• goodbye, cruel world
• overcruel

関連する語

• crude
• cruelty

副詞

cruel (not comparable)

1. (nonstandard) To a great degree; terribly.
   • 1913, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Poison Belt‎^[1]:

     "But I've served 'im ten years, and I'm fond of 'im, and, mind you, 'e's a great man, when all's said an' done, and it's an honor to serve 'im. But 'e does try one cruel at times."

   • 2016, Kerry Greenwood, Murder and Mendelssohn, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 219:

     'I've never got arthritis, though my old dad had it something cruel.'

動詞

cruel (三人称単数 現在形 cruels, 現在分詞 cruelling, 過去形および過去分詞形 cruelled)

1. (chiefly Australia, New Zealand) To spoil or ruin (one's chance of success)
   • 1937, Vance Palmer, Legend for Sanderson, Sydney: Angus & Robertson, p. 226, [2]

     What cruelled him was that Imperial Hotel contract.

   • 2014, The Sydney Morning Herald, 1 April, 2014, [3]

     He was on the fringes of Test selection last year before a shoulder injury cruelled his chances.

   • 2015, The Age, 8 September, 2015, [4]

     A shortage of berth space for mega container ships will restrict capacity at Melbourne's port, cruelling Labor's attempts to get maximum value from its privatisation, a leading shipping expert has warned.

2. (Australia, transitive, intransitive) To violently provoke (a child) in the belief that this will make them more assertive.
   • 2007, Stewart Motha, "Reconciliation as Domination" in Scott Veitch (ed.), Law and the Politics of Reconciliation, Routledge, 2016, p. 83, [5]

     Violence is apparently introduced early by the practice of "cruelling": children even in their first months are physically punished and then encouraged to seek retribution by punishing the punisher.

   • 2009, Mark Colvin, ABC, "Peter Sutton discusses the politics of suffering in Aboriginal communities," 2 July, 2009, [6]

     […] I was referring to the area where you were talking about this practice of cruelling; the pinching of babies, sometimes so hard that their skin breaks and may go septic.

名詞

cruel (countable かつ uncountable, 複数形 cruels)

1. Alternative form of crewel

Further reading

• “cruel” in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• “cruel” in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

アナグラム

• lucre, ulcer