cruelty
part of speech
noun (cruelty, uncountable; a cruelty, cruelties)
meaning for a pupil
1) Cruelty is behaviour that causes pain or suffering to people or animals on purpose, or without caring. tree →
2) A cruelty is a cruel action. tree →
sense in the lessons
In lessons about kindness and animal care, cruelty is always wrong, and there are laws against cruelty to animals. In stories and history, cruelty describes villains and unfair rulers. Bullying is a kind of cruelty; tell a trusted adult. Phrases: cruelty to animals, act of cruelty, cruelty-free.
examples
- Cruelty to animals is against the law. tree →
- The king was famous for his cruelty. tree →
- Bullying is a form of cruelty. tree →
- Shampoo labelled «cruelty-free» was not tested on animals. tree →
- The story shows the cruelty of war. tree →
- She could not believe the cruelty of his words. tree →
- Kindness is the opposite of cruelty. tree →
- “Oh! my dear daughter,” he cried, kissing her, “can you ever forget my cruelty? tree →
note
Mostly uncountable (cruelty to animals); countable for single acts (the cruelties of war). Adjective: cruel; adverb: cruelly. Spelt «cruelty», not «crualty».
In the corpora
- Online cruelty drives real people off social media; memes mocking someone's looks are bullying, even when lots of people share them.
- Hurting animals on purpose is cruelty; tell a trusted adult, who can report it to an animal welfare organisation.
- Content made for grown-ups can frighten younger children or make cruelty seem normal and funny.
- That's cruelty.» A prank is cruel when only one person gets hurt and everyone else laughs.
- Virtues are good habits such as honesty and courage; vices are bad habits such as greed and cruelty.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «cruelty» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.