What is "Cruel"?

Question

This is a 3 part question:
What does the word cruel really mean to you?
What are some of the most cruel things someone has done to you?
Whats the difference between cruel and abusive?

Answer 1

Tough question.
Cruel is an idea regarding conduct which is inappropriate and harmful either physically or psychologically or emotionally. Some things are worse than others, yet the damage is done.

I don't know what the most cruel thing I have experienced would be. Children were cruel to me as a child. Some have been insensitive to my feelings. Nothing too bad. But it was bad enough.

Abuse refers to inappropriate use of something. Cruel might not have anything to do with using something. As an example, it is cruel to set a trap for a person without a need for a trap. It is abusive to use a person's discomfort for enjoyment.

The answers are intentionally vague. You have to trap criminals. That is not cruel. You don't have to trap other citizens. That is cruel.

Answer 2

Cruel to me is intentionally wanting to make someone unhappy and miserable.
My so-called "mother" was one of the most cruel people I have ever met. When my grandmother was dying, she made everyone in the family keep quiet and not tell me, so I didn't have a chance to see my grandmother before she died. And I loved my grandmother more than life itself. Then the night she died, my mother came home from the hospital, woke me up and said, "your grandmother is dead." And then turned around and left the room. I have never forgotten that and it happened 50 years ago this August.

There is a thin line between cruel and abusive. My mother was emotionally and psychologically abusive; as well as cruel. Some people are just physically abusive, which is also cruel to the person receiving the beating, etc.

Answer 3

1). Cruel means that a dog is tied to a car and dragged 100 yards. Cruel means that a little child is kept in the hands of Micheal Jackson. Cruel means that serial killers are finding nasty ways of disposing of their victims.
2). I don't know...
3). Verbal abuse is just abusive; while physical abuse is cruel.

Answer 4

1) A person is cruel if he is indifferent to pain or suffering being inflicted on another person and instead, enjoys it rather than helping the person.
2) You say it based on experience (common examples include public humiliation, bullying, rumours, e.t.c.)
3) Abusive is a person who uses someone or something in such a way that the thing/person is harmed, while cruel is a person who enjoys or is indifferent to another person's suffering

Answer 5

1. "Cruel" or more properly, "Cruelty" (the noun form of the word) is plainly and simply the willful and deliberate causing of pain or any other kind of damage (physically or psychologically) to anything (human or not) that is capable of feeling that pain or the effects of that damage.
2. I could take hours of time and pages of space that I don't have to answer that sub-point.
3. "Abuse" could be classified as a type of, or even as a synonym for "Cruelty". "Abuse is clearly a form of cruelty and cruelty clearly qualifies as abuse.

Answer 6

Cruel is an unnecessary act aimed at hurting or humiliating someone.

Answer 7

Cruelty is abusive, prolonged cruelty is torture.
..... a long lost daughter .... "enough said"

Answer 8

TO BE MEAN