Third person singular present tense of 'cruel' when used as a verb; to treat cruelly or act with cruelty toward.
From 'cruel' (Latin 'crudelis') used as a verb by adding the third-person singular '-s' suffix, though this usage is archaic or extremely rare in modern English.
In Middle English, adjectives could be verbed much more freely than today—'to cruel someone' once meant 'to show cruelty to them,' but we've replaced this with 'to cruelize' or just use 'cruelty' as a noun.
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