Cruelty

Definition: Cruelty

Cruelty

Noun

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

2. Feelings of extreme heartlessness.

3. The quality of being cruel and causing tension or annoyance.

Date "cruelty" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1200. (references)

Domain	Definition
Dream Interpretation	To dream of cruelty being shown you, foretells you will have trouble and disappointment in some dealings. If it is shown to others, there will be a disagreeable task set for others by you, which will contribute to you own loss. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted ....
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Cruelty is indifference to suffering and even positive pleasure in inflicting it. Cruel ways of inflicting suffering may involve violence, but violence is not necessary for an act to be cruel. For example, not helping the one who drowns and begs for a helping hand, and watching it with disinterested amusement or pleasure instead is not an act of violence, but is an instance of cruelty.

Cruelty is inherited in human nature, and some apes are capable of cruelty too. No other animal is known that feels pleasure in seing other suffer. According to Nietzsche, almost all higher culture comes from spiritualization of cruelty.

Synonyms: Cruelty

Synonyms: cruelness (n), harshness (n), inhuman treatment (n), mercilessness (n), pitilessness (n), ruthlessness (n). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Fear	A dagger of the mind ; expertus metuit; " fain would I climb but that I fear to fall"; " fear is the parent of cruelty "; " Gorgons and hydras and chimeras dire "; omnia tuta timens; " our fears do make us traitors "
Malevolence	Hardness of heart, heart of stone, obduracy; cruelty; cruelness; Adjective: brutality, savagery; ferity, ferocity; barbarity, inhumanity, immanity, truculence, ruffianism; evil eye, cloven foot; torture, vivisection.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	Superior intelligence and senseless cruelty just do not go together. (Doctor Who; writing credit: Basil Caplan; Martin Defalco) You didn't really mean what you said about bringing a child into this world being an act of cruelty, did you? (The Rock; writing credit: David Weisberg; Douglas Cook) Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. (Tail Gunner Joe; writing credit: Lane Slate) There is much cruelty in the universe. (Farscape; writing credit: Olivier Cauvin) Yes, I think we have been guilty of homophobic cruelty, and, excluded people like you, in the past. (When Night Is Falling; writing credit: Patricia Rozema)
Movie/TV Titles	Intolerable Cruelty (2003)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
Books	Cruelty and Deception:The Controversy over Dirty Hands in Politics (reference) Cruelty to Animals and Interpersonal Violence: Readings in Research and Application (reference) Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty (reference) Unspeakable Truths and Happy Endings: Human Cruelty and the New Trauma Therapy (reference) You Can Save the Animals: 251 Ways to Stop Thoughtless Cruelty (reference) (more book examples)

Periodicals	American Society For The Prevention Of Cruelty To Animals Membership (reference) (more periodical examples)

Music	Cruelty and the Beast [Bonus CD] [BOX SET] (reference) The New Cruelty (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	The Reward Of Cruelty. / Designed by W. Hogarth. Credit: National Library of Medicine.
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

Author	Quotation
Henri Becquerel	Decisiveness is often the art of timely cruelty.
John Bunyan	Hanging is too good for him said Mr. Cruelty.
John Paul II	The cemetery of the victims of human cruelty in our century is extended to include yet another vast cemetery, that of the unborn.
Phaedrus	Gentleness is the antidote for cruelty.
Seneca	All cruelty springs from weakness.
Thomas Fuller	Cruelty is a tyrant, that is always attended with Fear.
William Tecumseh Sherman	War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Author	Date	Quotation
John Locke	1690	If therefore they must have one to rule them, as government is hardly to be avoided amongst men that live together; who so likely to be the man as he that was their common father; unless negligence, cruelty, or any other defect of mind or body made him unfit for it? But when either the father died, and left his next heir, for want of age, wisdom, courage, or any other qualities, less fit for rule; or where several families met, and consented to continue together; there, it is not to be doubted, but they used their natural freedom, to set up him, whom they judged the ablest, and most likely, to rule well over them. (Second Treatise of Government)
US Declaration of Independence	1776	He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. (reference)
Communist Manifesto	1848	To this section belong economists, philanthropists, humanitarians, improvers of the condition of the working class, organisers of charity, members of societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals, temperance fanatics, hole-and-corner reformers of every imaginable kind. (reference)
Treaty of Versailles	1919	Damage caused by Germany or her allies to civilian victims of acts of cruelty, violence or maltreatment (including injuries to life or health as a consequence of imprisonment, deportation, internment or evacuation, of exposure at sea or of being forced to labour), wherever arising, and to the surviving dependents of such victims. (reference)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Title	Author	Quote
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man	Joyce, James	He had not forgotten a whit of their cowardice and cruelty but the memory of it called forth no anger from him.
Gulliver's Travels	Swift, Jonathan	How cruelty, falsehood, and cowardice grew to be characteristics by which certain families are distinguished as much as by their coat of arms.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Health		These problems may be a reaction to a lack of understanding or discomfort about epilepsy that may result in cruelty or avoidance by other people. (references)
Children	Lithuania	Authorities reported that three children were killed by their parents during the first 6 months of the year, and six were killed during 2000. The penalties for violence and cruelty against underage persons are prison terms of 1 to 2 years. (references)
	Lithuania	The prevalence of authoritarian values in family upbringing discouraged more active measures against child abuse; however, the press reported increases in cruelty to children, including sexual abuse, intentional starvation, beatings, and killings. (references)
	France	In 2000 there were approximately 18,300 reported cases of mistreatment (physical violence, sexual abuse, mental cruelty, or severe negligence) of children, compared with 18,500 in 1999. Approximately 5,000 of these cases involved reports of sexual abuse. (references)
Civil Liberties	Kazakhstan	For example, the law prohibits the mass media from "undermining state security" or advocating "class, social, race, national, or religious superiority" or "a cult of cruelty and violence." Under the law, owners, editors, distributors, and journalists may be held responsible for violations. (references)
Economic History	Suriname	Historians cite several reasons for this, including Holland's preoccupation with its more extensive (and profitable) East Indian territories, violent conflict between whites and native tribes, and frequent uprisings by the imported slave population, which was often treated with extraordinary cruelty. (references)
Human Rights	Morocco	The book described Marzouki's ordeal, including the cruelty of the guards, torture, solitary confinement, and the perpetual darkness. (references)
Women	Malaysia	Some Shari'a experts have urged Muslim women to become more aware of the provisions of Shari'a that prohibit spousal abuse and provide for divorces on grounds of physical cruelty. (references)
	Tanzania	Government officials have called for changes in practices that adversely affect women, and the Sexual Offenses Special Provisions Act, which prohibits cruelty against children, has been used as the basis for campaigns against FGM performed on girls; however, there is no legal protection for adult women who undergo FGM. In addition police do not have adequate resources to protect victims. (references)
Lexicography	Devil's Dictionary	MOUSE, n. An animal which strews its path with fainting women. As in Rome Christians were thrown to the lions, so centuries earlier in Otumwee, the most ancient and famous city of the world, female heretics were thrown to the mice. Jakak-Zotp, the historian, the only Otumwump whose writings have descended to us, says that these martyrs met their death with little dignity and much exertion. He even attempts to exculpate the mice (such is the malice of bigotry) by declaring that the unfortunate women perished, some from exhaustion, some of broken necks from falling over their own feet, and some from lack of restoratives. The mice, he avers, enjoyed the pleasures of the chase with composure. But if "Roman history is nine-tenths lying," we can hardly expect a smaller proportion of that rhetorical figure in the annals of a people capable of so incredible cruelty to a lovely women; for a hard heart has a false tongue.
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Speaker	Term	Phrase(s)
James Madison	1809-1817	The cruelty of the enemy in enlisting the savages into a war with a nation desirous of mutual emulation in mitigating its calamities has not been confined to any one quarter.
George W. Bush	2001-2005	Free societies do not intimidate through cruelty and conquest, and open societies do not threaten the world with mass murder.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

"Cruelty" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Cruelty" is used about 775 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	100%	775	8,892

Expressions using "cruelty": prevention of cruelty to animals ♦ refinement of cruelty. Additional references.
Hyphenated Usage
	Beginning with "cruelty": cruelty-free, cruelty-kindness.
	Ending with "cruelty": anti-cruelty.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "cruelty"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		mizori (atrocity, barbarism, devilry, deviltry, diabolism, ferocity, inhumanity, outrage), egërsi (atrocity, bestiality, callousness, ferocity, fierceness, furiosity, fury, ill-treatment, inclemency, rabidity, rabies, savagery, truculence, virulence). (various references)

Arabic		‏قسوة (asperity, austerity, hardheartedness, hardness, harshness, inexorability, inhumanity, mercilessness, pitilessness, rigidity, rigor, rigour, ruggedness, severity, sternness, strictness, stringency, violence), ‏وحشية (atrocity, barbarity, brutality, butch, cannibalism, devilry, feretory, ferocity, fierceness, inhumanity, ruffianism, savagery, shyness, thuggery, truculence). (various references)

Bulgarian		жестокост (barbarity, brutality, cannibalism, excess, ferocity, fierceness, inhumanity, toughness, truculence). (various references)

Chinese		惨暴 (Cruelties), 殘酷 (cruel). (various references)

Czech		krutost (atrocity, brutality, severity, viciousness, virulence, wickedness), bezcitnost (hardness, pitilessness). (various references)

Danish		dyrplageri (cruelty to animals). (various references)

Farsi		ستم (Injustice, Oppression, Tyranny), ظلم (Injustice, Tyranny), بیداد (Injustice, Oppression, Outcry). (various references)

Finnish		julmuus (ferocity). (various references)

French		cruauté. (various references)

German		grausamkeit (atrocity, barbarism, barbarity, bloodiness, ferocity, ghastliness, gruesomeness, heartlessness, inhumanity, savageness, savagery). (various references)

Greek		σκληρότησ (crustiness, hardness, inclemency, relentlessness, stoniness, toughness), σκληρότητα (bristliness, crustiness, fellness, flintiness, hardness, harshness, inclemency, relentlessness, stoniness, toughness), στυγνότητα, αγριότησ (savagery, truculence, truculency, wildness), αγριότητα (ferocity, fierceness, savagery, truculence, wildness), αιμοβορία (blood lust). (various references)

Hebrew		לב אבן, חמס� ות (oppression, rapacity, robbery, usurpation, violence), חמס (injustice, oppression, rapine, violence), אכזריות (inhumanity, mercilessness, savagery). (various references)

Hungarian		kegyetlenség (atrocity, barbarism, barbarity, brutality, ferocity, inhumanity, savageness, savagery). (various references)

Indonesian		kelaliman (despotism, oppression, tyranny), kekejaman (brutality, enormity, ferocity), kebuasan (wildness), kebengisan (severity, trenchancy). (various references)

Italian		crudelt� (barbarity, harshness, pitilessness, unkindness). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		残虐 (brutality), 残酷 (harshness). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		ざ�"ぎゃく (brutality), ざ�"に�" (atrocity, brutality), ざ�"�"く (atrocity, brutality, harshness), つみつくり (sinfulness), か�"く (harsh, rigour, severity), れい�"く (coldheartedness, relentless, ruthless, the regular time), あ�"ぎ (greed, insistence, insistent), むざ�" (atrocious, atrocity, cold-bloodedness, cruel, miserable, pitiful, tragic), むじょう (best, hardness, heartlessness, ruthless, uncertainty), じゃけ�" (cruel, evil point of view, hard hearted, hard-heartedness, unkind). (various references)

Korean		�"혹성 (Cruelties). (various references)

Manx		dewilys (barbarity, inclemency, severity), dewilid (barbarity, inclemency, severity), deinyssaght, deinaghtaght, barbaraght (barbarity, inhumanity, philistinism, ruthlessness). (various references)

Norwegian		grusomhet (atrocity). (various references)

Pig Latin		ueltycray

Portuguese		crueldade (atrociousness, atrocity, bloodiness, devilry, deviltry, fellness, harshness, oppression, savagery, severity). (various references)

Romanian		cruzime (barbarity, brutality, callosity, excess, feliness, fierceness, inhumanity, savagery), vitregie (hostility, wickedness), strãşnicie (harshness), sãlbãticie (atrocity, barbarity, brutality, ferocity, fierceness, primitiveness, ruggedness, savageness, savagery, truculence, wildness, wilds), hainie (enmity, viciousness, wickedness), ferocitate (atrocity, bloodthirstiness, ferociousness, ferocity, fierceness, grimness, savageness, savagery, truculence, wildness), brutalitate (brutality, roughness, savagery, violence), barbarie (barbarism, barbarity, barbarousness, gothicism, vandalism). (various references)

Russian		жестокость (atrocity, barbarity, brutality, devilry, ferocity, fierceness, inhumanity, savagery, tyranny, violence). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		okrutnost (harshness, sternness, truculence). (various references)

Spanish		crueldad (barbarity, bloodiness, brutality, devilry, inhumanity, savageness, savagery, viciousness, vicissitude, violence, wickedness). (various references)

Swedish		grymhet (atrocity, barbarity, bestiality, ferocity, savagery). (various references)

Turkish		cefa (calvary, hardship, long-suffering, rigor, rigour, suffering, torment), zulüm (grimness, oppression, persecution, tyranny), işkence (corporal punishment, gaff, grueling, gruelling, persecution, torment, torture), gaddarlık (atrocity, barbarity, brutality, ferocity, fiendishness, grimness, inhumanity, perfidy, savageness, truculence), acımasızlık (atrocity, cold blood, harshness, implacability, inexorability, pitilessness, ruthlessness, truculence). (various references)

Ukrainian		суворість (asperity, astringency, austerity, hardness, inclemency, rigidity, rigor, rigour, rudeness, strictness, stringency), жорстокість (asperity, atrocity, barbarity, brutality, ferociousness, ferocity, harshness, savagery, severity), безсердечність (callousness). (various references)

Vietnamese		tính độc ác (devilishness, devilism, savageness, savagery), tính ác nghiệt h� nh động t� n ác, sự t� n nhẫn (pitilessness), sự t� n bạo (barbarousness, ferociousness, ferocity, sanguinariness), sự t� n ác (atrociousness, atrocity, blackness), sự hung ác. (various references)

Welsh		creulondeb. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	atrocitas, crudelitas. (various references)
Avestan	200-600	aêshmahe. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Language	Date	Source	Genesis Chapter 49, Verse 5
Greek (transliterated)	250 BC	Septuagint	Sumewn kai leui adelfoi sunetelesan adikian ex airesewV autwn
Latin	405	Vulgate	Symeon et Levi fratres vasa iniquitatis bellantia
Middle English	1395	Wyclif	Symeon and Leuy, bretheren, the vessels of shrewidnes, makynge batails;
Renaissance English	1526	Tyndale	The brethern Simeon and Leui weked instrumentes are their wepos.
Jacobean English	1611	King James	Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.
Victorian English	1833	Webster	Simeon and Levi are brethren: instruments of cruelty are in, their habitations.
Basic English	1964	Ogden	Simeon and Levi are brothers; deceit and force are their secret designs.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Language	Genesis Chapter 49, Verse 5
Cebuano	Si Simeon ug Levi mga magsoon: Mga hinagiban sa linugsanay nga dagku ang ilang mga espada.
Chinese	西緬 �'� 利未是弟兄、他們的刀劍是殘忍的器具。
Croatian	� imun i Levi braæa su prava! Maèevi im oruðe nasilja.
Danish	Simeon og Levi, det Broder Par, Voldsredskaber er deres Våben.
Dutch	Simeon en Levi zijn gebroeders! hun handelingen zijn werktuigen van geweld!
Finnish	Simeon ja Leevi, veljekset, heidän aseensa ovat väkivallan aseet.
French	Siméon et Lévi sont frères; Leurs glaives sont des instruments de violence.
German	Die Brüder Simeon und Levi, ihre Schwerter sind mörderische Waffen.
Haitian Creole	¶ Simeyon ak Levi se menm moun, se pwason kraze nan bouyon! Yo sèvi ak zam yo pou fè mechanste.
Hungarian	Simeon és Lévi atyafiak, erõszak eszközei az õ fegyverök.
Indonesian-Bahasa Sehari-hari	Simeon dan Lewi bersaudara; senjata mereka alat kekerasan.
Indonesian-Terjemahan Lama	Bahwa Simeon dan Lewi itu adik-beradik adanya, maka pedangnya itu perkakas pembunuhan.
Italian	Simeone e Levi sono fratelli, strumenti di violenza sono i loro coltelli.
Maori	¶ He tuakana, he teina, a Himiona raua ko Riwai; he rakau riri kino a raua hoari.
Norwegian	Simeon og Levi er brødre, voldsvåben er deres sverd.
Portuguese	Simeão e Levi são irmãos; as suas espadas são instrumentos de violência.
Rumanian	Simeon wi Levi sknt frayi; Sqbiile lor sknt niwte unelte de sklnicie.
Russian	уЙНЕПО Й мЕЧЙК �'ТБФШС, ПТХ�"ЙС ЦЕУФПЛПУФЙ НЕЮЙ ЙИ;
Swedish	Simeon och Levi äro bröder; deras vapen äro våldets verktyg.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Derivations
	Words ending with "cruelty": anticruelty. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Cruelty" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Carwelti, Creely, cruelity, cruely, cruetly, curelty. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "cruelty" (pronounced kruw"ltē or kruw"ultē)
3	-l t ē	admiralty, casualty, difficulty, disloyalty, faculty, faulty, fealty, frailty, guilty, kilty, loyalty, mayoralty, novelty, penalty, realty, royalty, salty, specialty, subtlety.
4	-u l t ē	admiralty, casualty, disloyalty, faculty, fealty, loyalty, mayoralty, novelty, penalty, realty, royalty, specialty, subtlety.
3	-l t ē	difficulty, faulty, frailty, guilty, kilty, salty.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Direct Anagrams: cutlery.
	Words within the letters "c-e-l-r-t-u-y"
	-1 letter: curtly, cutely, cutler, reluct.
	-2 letters: cruel, cruet, culet, curet, curly, cuter, cutey, eruct, lucre, recut, truce, truly, tuyer, ulcer.
	-3 letters: celt, clue, cult, cure, curl, curt, cute, ecru, luce, lure, lute, lyre, rely, rule, ruly, trey, true, tule, tyer, tyre, yule, yurt.
	-4 letters: cel, cry, cue, cur, cut, ecu, let, leu, ley, lye, rec.
	Words containing the letters "c-e-l-r-t-u-y"
	+1 letter: clustery, cluttery.
	+2 letters: arcuately, butcherly, credulity, currently, electuary.
	+3 letters: accurately, coulometry, creaturely, curatively, reluctancy, secularity, truculency, turbulency.
	+4 letters: anticruelty, cellularity, congruently, corpulently, counterplay, counterploy, courteously, ejaculatory, exculpatory, granulocyte, incredulity, lucratively, peculiarity, recurrently, reductively, reluctantly, specularity, subliteracy, truculently, uncertainly.
	+5 letters: agranulocyte, articulately, concurrently, corruptively, counterplays, counterploys, counterrally, counterstyle, diuretically, elocutionary, granulocytes, inaccurately, interfaculty, neurotically, perceptually, productively, reducibility, respectfully, reticulately, reticulocyte, subcentrally, sylviculture, translucency, unhysterical, vesicularity.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

Expression	Frequency per Day	Expression	Frequency per Day
animal cruelty	361	cruelty free soap	7
anti cruelty society	66	cruelty and the beast	7
anti chicago cruelty society	45	cat cruelty	7
animal cruelty picture	40	animal cruelty prevention	7
society for prevention of cruelty to animal	39	animal cruelty pic	7
cruelty intolerable	35	cruelty free product	7
cruelty	23	animal cruelty statistics	7
beauty without cruelty	22	animal cruelty story	7
anti chicago cruelty	21	animal cruelty photo	7
animal cruelty law	20	animal cruelty towards	6
anti cruelty	15	animal case cruelty	6
american society for the prevention of cruelty to animal	14	cruelty horse	6
mental cruelty	12	animal cruelty information	6
cruelty free	11	animal cruelty report	5
cruelty free cosmetic	11	animal cruelty society	5
animal cruelty links	10	animal cruelty video	5
abuse animal animal cruelty neglect	9	cruelty kfc	5
animal cruelty ma report	8	cruelty dog	5
animal circus cruelty	8	cruelty free investing	5
theater of cruelty	8	cruelty free investment	4
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Cruelty

Definition: Cruelty

Cruelty

Noun

Specialty Definition: Cruelty

Specialty Definition: Cruelty

Synonyms: Cruelty

Synonyms within Context: Cruelty

Fear

Malevolence

Crosswords: Cruelty

Modern Usage: Cruelty

Screenplays

Movie/TV Titles

Commercial Usage: Cruelty

Books

Periodicals

Music

Image Slideshow: Cruelty

Illustrations:Cruelty

Computer Images:Cruelty

Photo Album: Cruelty

Familiar Quotations: Cruelty

Henri Becquerel

John Bunyan

John Paul II

Phaedrus

Seneca

Thomas Fuller

William Tecumseh Sherman

Historic Usage: Cruelty

John Locke

US Declaration of Independence

Communist Manifesto

Treaty of Versailles

Use in Literature: Cruelty

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Joyce, James

Gulliver's Travels

Swift, Jonathan

Non-Fiction Usage: Cruelty

Lexicography

Devil's Dictionary

Speeches: Cruelty

James Madison

George W. Bush

Usage Frequency: Cruelty

Expression: Cruelty

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Cruelty

Modern Translation: Cruelty

Albanian

Arabic

Bulgarian

Chinese

Czech

Danish

Farsi

Finnish

French

German

Greek

Hebrew

Hungarian

Indonesian

Italian

Japanese Kanji

Japanese Katakana

Korean

Manx

Norwegian

Pig Latin

Portuguese

Romanian

Russian

Serbo-Croatian

Spanish

Swedish

Turkish

Ukrainian

Vietnamese

Illustrations:
Cruelty

Computer Images:
Cruelty