fierce applies to humans and animals that inspire terror because of their wild and menacing aspect or fury in attack.
fierce warriors
ferocious implies extreme fierceness and unrestrained violence and brutality.
a ferocious dog
barbarous implies a ferocity or mercilessness regarded as unworthy of civilized people.
barbarous treatment of prisoners
savage implies the absence of inhibitions restraining civilized people filled with rage, lust, or other violent passion.
a savage criminal
cruel implies indifference to suffering and even positive pleasure in inflicting it.
the cruel jokes of schoolboys
Example Sentences
a cruel twist of fate Hunger is a cruel fact of nature.
Recent Examples on the WebIn the lawsuit, Crago alleges prison officials violated his Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment by failing to keep him safe, and his First Amendment rights when Pitz retaliated against him for speaking out. Jimmy Jenkins, The Arizona Republic, 14 Sep. 2022 Courts are finding that this is a violation of the Eighth Amendment which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. Taylor Wilson, USA TODAY, 14 Sep. 2022 Attorneys for Le and Yoo had argued that, partly because of their youth, a life sentence would constitute cruel and unusual punishment barred by the Eighth Amendment. Salvador Rizzo, Washington Post, 12 Sep. 2022 Trips could last for days; it wasn’t considered cruel and unusual punishment to include clubs residing in Maine, Virginia and Ohio in the same league. Mitchell Nathanson, The Conversation, 5 Sep. 2022 Drugs and violence are widespread in Alabama prisons, where conditions are so overcrowded and understaffed that federal authorities filed a lawsuit alleging the state system violates the Constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.al, 1 Sep. 2022 The advocates claim that closing the park is a cruel and unusual punishment because there is a lack of adequate alternatives for those camping there and therefore violates homeless individuals’ Eighth Amendment rights against excessive penalties. Tammy Murga, San Diego Union-Tribune, 30 Aug. 2022 In 2009, two Pelican Bay men in the same solitary unit as McCarthy — Todd Ashker and Danny Troxell — filed a handwritten federal lawsuit claiming their treatment violated the 8th Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. Anita Chabria, Los Angeles Times, 2 Aug. 2022 The Borowitz Report)—In an impassioned plea in open court, lawyers for Steve Bannon argued that imprisoning their client would result in cruel and unusual punishment for those incarcerated with him. Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker, 21 July 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin crudelis, from crudus — see crudeentry 1