CRUELLY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does cruelly mean? 

• CRUELLY (adverb)
  The adverb CRUELLY has 2 senses:

1. excessively

2. with cruelty

  Familiarity information: CRUELLY used as an adverb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CRUELLY (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Excessively

Context example:

a cruelly bitter winter

Sense 2

Meaning:

With cruelty

Context example:

he treated his students cruelly

Pertainym:

cruel ((of persons or their actions) able or disposed to inflict pain or suffering)

 Context examples 

The tongues of all were out and lolling, the white fangs showing cruelly white in the moonlight.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

You treated me falsely, ungratefully, and cruelly.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

That is a wonderful machine, but it is cruelly true.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The King may do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly wronged.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“But what,” said she, after a pause, “can have been his motive? What can have induced him to behave so cruelly?”

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

For a moment or two she could say no more; but when this emotion had passed away, she added, in a firmer tone, Elinor, I have been cruelly used; but not by Willoughby.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

His eyes were blazing, his mouth was wide open; the teeth gleamed cruelly white.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

And I hope you will not be cruelly concealing any tendency to indisposition.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

And when time shall have softened your despair, new and dear objects of care will be born to replace those of whom we have been so cruelly deprived.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

The ebb-tide, which had so cruelly delayed us, was now making reparation and delaying our assailants.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)