Search the Dictionary

roper time; premature; immature; as, a timeless grave. [Obs.] Must I behold thy timeless, cruel death Shak.

Trouble; distress; teen. [Obs.] "Cruel winter's tine." Spenser.

Full to the top, ore brim; brimfull. "Topful of direst cruelty." Shak. [He] was so topful of himself, that he let it spill on all the company. I. Watts.

ravery; hence, figuratively, a real battle. "In battle and in tourneyment." Chaucer. With cruel tournament the squadrons join. Milton.

or ludicrous. I see poor Lucan travestied, not appareled in his Roman toga, but under the cruel shears of an English tailor. Bentley.

To handle; to manage; to use; to bear one's self toward; as, to treat prisoners cruelly; to treat children kindly.

or temptation that exercises and proves the graces or virtues of men. Others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings. Heb. xi. 36.

Cruel; destructive; ruthless. More or less truculent plagues. Harvey.

a tyrant; suiting a tyrant; unjustly severe in government; absolute; imperious; despotic; cruel; arbitrary; as, a tyrannical prince; a tyrannical master; tyrannical government. "A power tyrannical." Shak. Our sects a more tyrannic power assume. Roscommon. The oppressor ruled tyrannic where he durst. Pope. -- Ty*ran"nic…

Cruel government or discipline; as, the tyranny of a schoolmaster.

authority, or lawful authority in an unlawful manner; one who by taxation, injustice, or cruel punishment, or the demand of unreasonable services, imposes burdens and hardships on those under his control, which law and humanity do not authorize, or which the purposes of government do not require; a cruel master; an op…

Without kind feelings; cruel; hard-hearted. To each his sufferings: all are men, Condemned alike to groan; The tender for another's pain, Th' unfeeling for his own. Gray. -- Un*feel"ing*ly, adv. -- Un*feel"ing*ness, n.

Wanting in kindness, sympathy, benevolence, gratitude, or the like; cruel; harsh; unjust; ungrateful. He is unkind that recompenseth not; but he is most unkind that forgetteth. Sir T. Elyot. -- Un*kind"ly, adv. -- Un*kind"ness, n.

Not merciful; indisposed to mercy or grace; cruel; inhuman; merciless; unkind. -- Un*mer"ci*ful*ly, adv. -- Un*mer"ci*ful*ness, n.

Not relenting; unyielding; rigid; hard; stern; cruel. -- Un`re*lent"ing*ly, adv. -- Un`re*lent"ing*ness, n.

ngles or intricacy; to disentangle; to resolve; as, to untangle thread. Untangle but this cruel chain. Prior.

To behave toward; to act with regard to; to treat; as, to use a beast cruelly. "I will use him well." Shak. How wouldst thou use me now Milton. Cato has used me ill. Addison.

hink flattery, for they 'll find 'em truth. Shak. And the last words he uttered called me cruel. Addison.

The spirit or conduct of the Vandals; ferocious cruelty; hostility to the arts and literature, or willful destruction or defacement of their monuments.

ttle animals or insects, collectively, as squirrels, rats, mice, flies, lice, bugs, etc. "Cruel hounds or some foul vermin." Chaucer. Great injuries these vermin, mice and rats, do in the field. Mortimer. They disdain such vermin when the mighty boar of the forest . . . is before them. Burke.