What's the difference between cruel and mean?

Cruel


Definition:

  • (n.) See Crewel.
  • (a.) Disposed to give pain to others; willing or pleased to hurt, torment, or afflict; destitute of sympathetic kindness and pity; savage; inhuman; hard-hearted; merciless.
  • (a.) Causing, or fitted to cause, pain, grief, or misery.
  • (a.) Attended with cruetly; painful; harsh.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) China’s new law also restricts the right of media to report on details of terror attacks, including a provision that media and social media cannot report on details of terror activities that might lead to imitation, nor show scenes that are “cruel and inhuman”.
  • (2) Through small and large acts of deprivation and destruction we follow the process: the removal of hope, of dignity, of luxury, of necessity, of self; the reduction of a man to a hoarder of grey slabs of bread and the scrapings of a soup bowl (wonderfully told all this, with a novelist's gift for detail and sometimes very nearly comic surprise), to the confinement of a narrow bed – in which there is "not even any room to be afraid" – with a stranger who doesn't speak your language, to the cruel illogicality of hating a fellow victim of oppression more than you hate the oppressor himself – one torment following another, and even the bleak comfort of thinking you might have touched rock bottom denied you as, when the most immediate cause of a particular stress comes to an end, "you are grievously amazed to see that another one lies behind; and in reality a whole series of others".
  • (3) It goes on: "In a reality of ongoing occupation, of solid cynicism and meanness, each and every one of us bears the moral obligation to try to relieve the suffering, do something to bend back the occupation's giant, cruel hand."
  • (4) At one point, Walters speculates that “she looks the same weight as the Duchess – about 8st”; later, he disingenuously asks her to discuss “the cruel comments about being a ‘childless spinster’”, neither telling readers who made those “cruel comments” in the first place, or where.
  • (5) More here: UK regulator urges banks to speed up swaps mis-selling compensation 8.40am GMT More reaction to the decision to send riot police to evict people from the offices of Greece's former state broadcaster this morning , starting with journalist Nick Malkoutzis: Nick Malkoutzis (@NickMalkoutzis) 5 mths after flicking switch on public broadcaster ERT, gov't tries to settle issue by sending riot police to remove remaining staff #Greece November 7, 2013 Nick Malkoutzis (@NickMalkoutzis) While #ERT will be off air for good after police intervention, the stain of how its closure has been handled won't wash away easily #Greece November 7, 2013 Lady Mondegreen (@amaenad) Like a mean stupid dog appeasing a cruel master, the Greek government wants to lay ERT's limp body at the troika's feet.
  • (6) The government confirmed on Tuesday that the second year of the cull had begun, sparking outrage from animal rights activists, campaigners and opposition politicians who claim it is cruel and ineffective.
  • (7) Her friends have been arrested and subjected to what they describe as cruel and inhumane treatment .
  • (8) The jury decided unanimously Thursday that the Colorado attack was cruel enough to justify the death penalty .
  • (9) One of its board members is retired Major General Andrew James “Jim” Molan, co-architect of Tony Abbott’s “Operation Sovereign Borders,” the draconian program relying on the remote island detention centres condemned as cruel and inhumane by multiple respected human rights organisations.
  • (10) MOAB map “Isis were so cruel to us,” said Ahmad.
  • (11) Philip French championed Boyle's career from the outset, describing his debut feature film, Shallow Grave , as "a good piece of storytelling... Hitchcock would have admired its ruthlessness and cruel humour."
  • (12) S an Francisco is now a cruel place and a divided one.
  • (13) In a rather florid letter with classical, literary and historical references, he told her: "You, I already know from happy experience, will not be cruel to my tender flame … As I think of you I shall learn to love you more.
  • (14) Of course the timing was cruel, aimed at throwing the prime minister off balance just before what turned out to be a fairly successful Commons question time.
  • (15) He could be very charming, he could be very cruel, but he mattered and he put something together that was extraordinary."
  • (16) One of the first demands is that the bombardments by the regime and its [Russian] backers must end.” Merkel condemned the air raids on Syria’s second city as “inhumane and cruel”.
  • (17) While Liverpool seemed stretched by cruel successive away fixtures, Chelsea arguably mustered some of their finest attacking football of the campaign through that ferocious opening period.
  • (18) If you follow Twitter regularly, it's easy to believe that many of our fellow citizens are cruel, mean, misogynist and foul-mouthed.
  • (19) We perceive the circumstances of our youth as normal and unexceptional, however sparse or cruel they may be.
  • (20) "It's outrageous and cruel that people are taken off to detention and the families hear nothing until the body shows up with signs of abuse," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

Mean


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To have in the mind, as a purpose, intention, etc.; to intend; to purpose; to design; as, what do you mean to do ?
  • (v. t.) To signify; to indicate; to import; to denote.
  • (v. i.) To have a purpose or intention.
  • (superl.) Destitute of distinction or eminence; common; low; vulgar; humble.
  • (superl.) Wanting dignity of mind; low-minded; base; destitute of honor; spiritless; as, a mean motive.
  • (superl.) Of little value or account; worthy of little or no regard; contemptible; despicable.
  • (superl.) Of poor quality; as, mean fare.
  • (superl.) Penurious; stingy; close-fisted; illiberal; as, mean hospitality.
  • (a.) Occupying a middle position; middle; being about midway between extremes.
  • (a.) Intermediate in excellence of any kind.
  • (a.) Average; having an intermediate value between two extremes, or between the several successive values of a variable quantity during one cycle of variation; as, mean distance; mean motion; mean solar day.
  • (n.) That which is mean, or intermediate, between two extremes of place, time, or number; the middle point or place; middle rate or degree; mediocrity; medium; absence of extremes or excess; moderation; measure.
  • (n.) A quantity having an intermediate value between several others, from which it is derived, and of which it expresses the resultant value; usually, unless otherwise specified, it is the simple average, formed by adding the quantities together and dividing by their number, which is called an arithmetical mean. A geometrical mean is the square root of the product of the quantities.
  • (n.) That through which, or by the help of which, an end is attained; something tending to an object desired; intermediate agency or measure; necessary condition or coagent; instrument.
  • (n.) Hence: Resources; property, revenue, or the like, considered as the condition of easy livelihood, or an instrumentality at command for effecting any purpose; disposable force or substance.
  • (n.) A part, whether alto or tenor, intermediate between the soprano and base; a middle part.
  • (n.) Meantime; meanwhile.
  • (n.) A mediator; a go-between.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Thirty-two patients (10 male, 22 female; age 37-82 years) undergoing maintenance haemodialysis or haemofiltration were studied by means of Holter device capable of simultaneously analysing rhythm and ST-changes in three leads.
  • (2) Age difference did not affect the mean dose-effect response.
  • (3) Although the mean values for all hemodynamic variables between the two placebo periods were minimally changed, the differences in individual patients were striking.
  • (4) Propranolol resulted in a significantly lower mean hourly, mean 24 h and minimum heart rate.
  • (5) Which means Seattle can't give Jones room to make 13-yard catches as they just did.
  • (6) A group I subset (six animals), for which predominant cultivable microbiota was described, had a mean GI of 2.4.
  • (7) Then the esophagogastric variceal network was thrombosed by means of a catheter introduced during laparotomy, which created a portoazygos disconnection.
  • (8) The intrauterine mean active pressure (MAP) in the nulliparous group was 1.51 kPa (SD 0.45) in the first stage and 2.71 kPa (SD 0.77) in the second stage.
  • (9) In the group of high myopia (over 20 D), the mean correction was 13.4 D. In the group with refraction between 0 and 6 D, 88% of the eyes treated had attained a correction between -1 and +1 D 3 months postoperatively.
  • (10) That means deciding what job they’d like to have and outlining the steps they’ll need to take to achieve it.
  • (11) The difference in BP between a hospital casual reading and the mean 24 hour ambulatory reading was reduced only by atenolol.
  • (12) Until the 1960's there was great confusion, both within and between countries, on the meaning of diagnostic terms such as emphysema, asthma, and chronic brochitis.
  • (13) There were 12 males, 6 females, with mean age of 55.1 yrs (range 39-77 yrs).
  • (14) Measurement of urinary GGT levels represents a means by which proximal tubular disease in equidae could be diagnosed in its developmental stages.
  • (15) However, there was no statistically significant difference in mean areas under the LH and FSH curves in the GnRH-treated groups.
  • (16) Although lorazepam and haloperidol produced an equivalent mean decrease in aggression, significantly more subjects who received lorazepam had a greater decrease in aggression ratings than haloperidol recipients; this effect was independent of sedation.
  • (17) The mean and median values in the nondiabetic group are higher than in previously published reports.
  • (18) The way we are going to pay for that is by making the rules the same for people who go into care homes as for people who get care at their home, and by means-testing the winter fuel payment, which currently isn’t.” Hunt said the plan showed the Conservatives were capable of making difficult choices.
  • (19) Taken together these results are consistent with the view that primary CTL, as well as long term cloned CTL cell lines, exercise their cytolytic activity by means of perforin.
  • (20) Evidence is presented in support of the hypothesis that fresh bat guano serves as a means of pathogenic fungi dissemination in caves.