Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having no compassion or pity; merciless.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having no ruth or pity; cruel; pitiless; barbarous; insensible to the miseries of others.
  • Unmodified or unrestrained by pity; marked by unfaltering rigor; relentless; merciless: as, ruthless severity.
  • Synonyms Unpitying, hard-hearted.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Having no ruth; cruel; pitiless.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Without pity or compassion; cruel, pitiless.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective without mercy or pity

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

ruth +‎ -less

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Examples

  • Over Microsoft's formative years when they redefined the term ruthless, my friends and I worked for several startup and small companies that were crushed by Microsoft which they then bought for pennies on the dollar.

    LXer Linux News 2008

  • David Petraeus, the coalition's commander in Afghanistan, issued a rare apology Wednesday for a helicopter strike that killed nine children, hours after Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the allies for launching what he called a "ruthless attack."

    Petraeus Apologizes For Deaths Of Nine Afghan Children The Huffington Post News Editors 2011

  • David Petraeus, the coalition's commander in Afghanistan, issued a rare apology Wednesday for a helicopter strike that killed nine children, hours after Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the allies for launching what he called a "ruthless attack."

    Coalition Apologizes for Deaths of Afghan Children Dion Nissenbaum 2011

  • He said the world should show the same determination in dealing with Iran, which he described as a ruthless dictatorship.

    Libyan Unrest Tops Agenda at Israeli Cabinet Meeting 2011

  • He said the world should show the same determination in dealing with Iran, which he described as a ruthless dictatorship.

    Libyan Unrest Tops Agenda at Israeli Cabinet Meeting 2011

  • President Hamid Karzai swiftly condemned what he described as a "ruthless act of terror to target innocent people who had gathered for a religious ceremony," saying the bombing exposed the "vile and vicious nature of the enemy who do not want to see the Muslim people of Afghanistan to perform even their Islamic rituals."

    Afghan Bombing Kills at Least 19, Including Lawmaker Dion Nissenbaum 2011

  • Wales capain, who turns 23 on Wednesday, said: The word 'ruthless' has been drilled into the boys for the last few weeks.

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph Telegraph staff 2011

  • In 2009 Biller countersued, accusing Toyota of violating racketeering laws in what he termed a ruthless conspiracy and relentless effort to prevent evidence of its vehicles'

    chicagotribune.com - News 2011

  • In 2009 Biller countersued, accusing Toyota of violating racketeering laws in what he termed a ruthless conspiracy and relentless effort to prevent evidence of its vehicles'

    chicagotribune.com - News 2011

  • The previous death toll for children was 307, U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay said on December 2, denouncing what she called "ruthless repression" by Syrian forces.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2012

Comments

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  • Also: without Ruth.

    September 6, 2008

  • without ruth

    September 6, 2008

  • act without thinking about the consecuences.

    November 16, 2010