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cruelty Definition

cru·elty (-tē)

noun

  1. the quality or condition of being cruel; inhumanity; hardheartedness
  2. pl. cruelties -·ties a cruel action, remark, etc.
  3. Law willful infliction of physical pain or suffering upon a person or animal, or of mental distress upon a person

Etymology: ME cruelte < OFr < L crudelitas < cruel

cruelty Synonyms

cruelty

n.

brutality, barbarity, sadism, savageness, unkindness, inhumanity, barbarism, mercilessness, barbarousness, unmercifulness, wickedness, ruthlessness, severity, malignity, malice, rancor, venom, coldness, unfeelingness, callousness, insensibility, indifference, insensitivity, fierceness, viciousness, bestiality, animality, truculence, ferocity, savagery, brutishness, implacability, grimness, monstrousness, inflexibility, fiendishness, hardness of heart, bloodthirstiness, unnaturalness, heartlessness, relentlessness, torture, persecution, inquisition, despotism, harshness, outrage, atrocity; see also evil 1, tyranny.

Antonyms benevolence, kindness*, humanity.

cruelty Law Definition

n

As a ground for divorce, the intentional and malicious infliction of physical or psychological abuse by a married person upon his or her spouse that endangers or severely impairs the spouse’s life or physical or mental well-being or creates a reasonable apprehension in the spouse’s mind of physical or mental harm. The extent of abuse that a spouse is expected to tolerate varies state to state, but a single act of cruelty is normally not enough to constitute grounds for divorce. See also abuse.
cruelty Usage Examples

Preposition: of

  • farming: So we are subsidizing the cruelty of intensive farming, unhealthy meat and fattening dairy products, fattening sweet foods, drinking and smoking.

Converse of object

  • inflict: The privilege granted to religious bodies alone to inflict this cruelty should not be tolerated in a humane society.
  • expose: Read our reports, educate yourself and help us expose the cruelty and suffering behind these ' exotic meats ' .
  • prevent: A registered charity established to prevent cruelty to children.
  • justify: I remember even my father could not justify such cruelty in the pursuit of fun.
  • hate: They have respect for the world around them - hate cruelty to animals, hate the destruction of natural beauty.

Adjective modifier

  • wanton: Our campaign has always focussed on ending wanton cruelty to Britain's wild mammals - perpetrated in the name of sport.
  • gratuitous: Given the brutal and gratuitous cruelty observed at Bassatin by CIWF and Animals Australia, this has not been effective.
  • intentional: They all involve excitement, but I believe that only in rare individuals do they involve intentional cruelty.
  • appalling: He was taken from his homeland and forced to endure the most appalling cruelty.
  • horrific: Stickers will be produced to inform the public about the horrific cruelty behind the product they were about to buy.

Modifies a noun

  • offense: Cruelty The cruelty offense is kept, but redefined to try to make interpretation by the courts easier.
  • case: We have just taken in 34 rabbits, cruelty cases via the RSPCA, for legal reasons we can not disclose why!
  • charge: Columbus veterinarian Samuel Wilcox has been fined $ 500 for misdemeanor animal cruelty charges.
  • law: He isn't the only one frustrated with Virginia's animal cruelty laws.

Noun used with modifier

  • badger: For full details, see Ministry conceals badger cruelty.
  • animal: The Ulster Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals gets 7,000 animal cruelty calls each month.
  • child: The Full Stop Campaign's goal is to end child cruelty.
cruelty Quotes

   Then let us have our libertyagain, And challenge to yourselves no sovereignty. You came not in the world without our pain, Make that a bar against your cruelty; Your fault being greater, why should you disdain Our being your equals, free from tyranny?

—Lanyer, Aemilia

Cruelty is the law pervading all nature and society; and we can't get out of it if we would!

—Hardy,Thomas

La cruaute¤  , bien loin d'e"  tre un vice, est le premier sentiment qu'imprime en nous la nature; l'enfant brise son hochet, mord le te¤  ton de sa nourrice, e¤  trangle son oiseau, bien avant que d'avoir l'a"  ge de raison. Far from being a vice, cruelty is the primary feeling that nature imprints in us. The infant breaks its rattle, bites its nurse's nipple, and strangles a bird, well before reaching the age of reason.

—Sade, Donatien Alphonse Fran c° ois, Marquis de

The Europeans have scarcely visited any coast, but to gratify avarice, and extend corruption; to arrogate dominion without right, and practice cruelty without incentive† But there isreason to hope†that the light of the gospel will at last illuminate the sands of Africa, and the deserts of America, though its progress cannot but be slow when it is so much obstructed by the lives of Christians.

—Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson

Hanging is too good for him, said Mr Cruelty.

—Bunyan,John

: I have learned that neither kindness or cruelty by themselves, or independent of each other, create any effect beyond themselves.

—Albee, Edward Franklin, III

Browse dictionary entries near cruelty

  1. ‹ cruelties
  2. ‹ cruelness
  3. ‹ cruelly
  4. ‹ cruel and unusual
  5. ‹ cruel
  6. ‹ crudity
  7. ‹ crudities
  8. ‹ crudités
  9. ‹ crudest
  10. ‹ cruder
  1. cruet ›
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