Definition of Cruelty

1. Noun. A cruel act; a deliberate infliction of pain and suffering.

Exact synonyms: Inhuman Treatment
Generic synonyms: Abuse, Ill-treatment, Ill-usage, Maltreatment
Specialized synonyms: Impalement, Atrocity, Inhumanity

2. Noun. Feelings of extreme heartlessness.

3. Noun. The quality of being cruel and causing tension or annoyance.
Exact synonyms: Cruelness, Harshness
Specialized synonyms: Brutality, Ferociousness, Savagery, Viciousness, Murderousness
Generic synonyms: Malevolence, Malevolency, Malice
Derivative terms: Cruel, Harsh

Definition of Cruelty

1. n. The attribute or quality of being cruel; a disposition to give unnecessary pain or suffering to others; inhumanity; barbarity.

Definition of Cruelty

1. Noun. an indifference to suffering or positive pleasure in inflicting suffering. ¹

2. Noun. a cruel act ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Cruelty

1. a cruel act [n -TIES]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Cruelty

cruell
cruelled
crueller
cruellest
cruellie
cruelling
cruells
cruelltie
cruellty
cruelly
cruelness
cruelnesses
cruels
crueltie
cruelties
cruelty (current term)
cruentaren
cruentation
cruentous
crues
cruet
cruet-stand
cruets
crufomate
cruft
cruftier
cruftiest
crufty
cruise-control

Literary usage of Cruelty

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The North American Review by Making of America Project, Jared Sparks, Edward Everett, James Russell Lowell, Henry Cabot Lodge (1883)
"cruelty to children produces mental and physical disease, and the prevention of such cruelty is a matter, therefore, of grave public importance. ..."

2. Reliques of Ancient English Poetry: Consisting of Old Heroic Ballads, Songs by Thomas Percy (1877)
"IVEN, with some corrections, from an old black letter copy, intitled, Barbara Allen's cruelty, or the young man's tragedy. ~[It1s™not clear why Percy ..."

3. The Monist by Hegeler Institute (1893)
"cruelty AND PITY IN WOMAN. cruelty. FENCER says* that among savage nations the women are as perverse as the men, and that if they do not work ..."

4. The Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Babylonians by Charles Rollin (1869)
"THEIR cruelty TOWARDS THE HELOTS. LYCURGUS would be utterly inexcusable, if he gave occasion, as he is accused of having done, for all the rigour and ..."

5. Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1846)
"Thou hast drawn together been akin to those which—as may all the far-stretched greatness, all the have occurred to them—their own pride, cruelty, ..."

6. The Constitutional History of England from the Accession of Henry VII. to by Henry Hallam (1876)
"Its scope was to palliate the imputation of excessive cruelty with which Europe ... This snows how anxious the queer, was to repel the charges of cruelty, ..."

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