Definition of "cruel"

He was physically the toughest of us and wore five layers of polar clothing, but the cold was cruel and wore us down hour after hour.

2013, Ranulph Fiennes, Cold: Extreme Adventures at the Lowest Temperatures on Earth

You may be sure they watched the cliffs on their left eagerly for any sign of a break or any place where they could climb them; but those cliffs remained cruel.

1951, C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia

"But I've served 'im ten years, and I'm fond of 'im, and, mind you, 'e's a great man, when all's said an' done, and it's an honor to serve 'im. But 'e does try one cruel at times."

1913, Arthur Conan Doyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Poison Belt […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton

'I've never got arthritis, though my old dad had it something cruel.'

2016, Kerry Greenwood, Murder and Mendelssohn, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 219

What cruelled him was that Imperial Hotel contract.

1937, Vance Palmer, Legend for Sanderson‎, Sydney: Angus & Robertson, page 226

He was on the fringes of Test selection last year before a shoulder injury cruelled his chances.

2014 April 1, The Sydney Morning Herald

A shortage of berth space for mega container ships will restrict capacity at Melbourne's port, cruelling Labor's attempts to get maximum value from its privatisation, a leading shipping expert has warned.

2015 September 8, The Age

Violence is apparently introduced early by the practice of "cruelling": children even in their first months are physically punished and then encouraged to seek retribution by punishing the punisher.

2007, Stewart Motha, “Reconciliation as Domination”, in Scott Veitch, editor, Law and the Politics of Reconciliation‎, Routledge, published 2016, page 83

[…] I was referring to the area where you were talking about this practice of cruelling; the pinching of babies, sometimes so hard that their skin breaks and may go septic.

2009, Mark Colvin, ABC, "Peter Sutton discusses the politics of suffering in Aboriginal communities," 2 July, 2009