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Hamlet vocabulary
366 vocabulary words, including people, places, music, artists, etc.
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cruel to be kind
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► definition
Definition:treat somebody strictly now because you believe it will benefit them later
► uses
Uses:
The provinces in which the state religion is especially strong are occasionally raided and pillaged by government soldiery, recruited for the purpose by conscription among the dissenting sects, and are sometimes actually devastated with fire and sword. The result is not altogether confirmatory of the popular belief and does not fulfil the pious hope of the governing powers who are cruel to be kind.
Ambrose Bierce. The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 1
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The death I gave him. So again, good-night. — I must be cruel, only to be kind: Thus bad begins, and worse remains
William Shakespeare. Hamlet
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