Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus.) to spoil, to ruin any chance of success with.

1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 28 Mar. 10/4: But what, in the classic vernacular of David Ingram Esq., ‘cruelled’ us was the non-recognition of the following document:– […].
1894		Truth (Sydney) 2 Dec. 2/5: It is a pity that the Tivoli management allow a really first-rate [...] show to be cruelled by [...] the rather too broad allusions and sugestions of a somewhat swelled-headed comedian.
1908		Bulletin (Sydney) 30 July 14/2: But I ’adn’t th’ possible, so I bumped th’ ole pot f’ a fiver; but ’e wouldn’t spring, th’ cow, ’n’ feelin’ crewled, I went ’n’ guzzled me sorrer in devilled moisture.
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Nov. 44/1: I knew what cruelled me. I didn’t look a bloke what used fifty quids for mornin’ beers; but if I had a new suit on an’ a cigar stuck in me face they’d bin fallin’ over themselves ter serve me.
1916		C.J. Dennis ‘Rabbits’ in Moods of Ginger Mick 94: I want to ’owl an’ chuck me arms about, / An’ jab, an’ guard, / An’ swing, an’ uppercut, an’ crool some pitch.
1921		(con. WWI) E. Lynch Somme Mud 159: Longun has a horrible gash up his face [...] ‘This’ll cruel me pitch with the sheilas now.’.
1924		(con. WWI) A.G. Pretty Gloss. of Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: crool the pitch. To spoil a chance, or the further exploitation of some enterprise.
1934		Bulletin (Sydney) 1 Aug. 46/3: The game’s right enough so long as mugs don’t try and play a hand. When they come in that cruels the whole show.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 142: Things were going well with Sadie and myself and I didn’t want to cruel anything.
1963		R. McGregor-Hastie Compleat Migrant 100: If you can smooge an ’orse a day and crool yer cobbers pitch, / Buy forty thousand goes at Tatts and never strike it rich [...] then turn around and bludge your mates for schooner whacks of beer / and drink it frozen, son, you’re close on losin’ Pommy ways.
1972		J. McNeill Old Familiar Juice (1973) 89: bulla: Will you shut yer gob? Wodder yer have to cruel a man for?
1972		A. Chipper Aussie Swearers Guide 38: if you get too hungry, you’ll cruel the deal.
1986		R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 17: To cruel something is to spoil the chances of another or generally bugger things up by which means one has ‘cruelled it’.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Cruel. As in ‘to cruel someone’s chance’, thus to spoil or frustrate their plans.
1992		R.G. Barrett White Shoes 17: But you needn’t let it cruel your thing with Gianna.
2005		Australian 22 Dec. 🌐 Animal liberation activists have cruelled the pitch for animal experiments.
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] The 1977 mass escape from Maitland had also cruelled his chances.
2012		(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Coorparoo Blues [ebook] ‘Don’t want to cruel the pitch, eh?’.
2019		C. Hammer Silver [ebook] [T]hat would go a long way to cruelling the golf course development.
2020		D. Whish-Wilson Shore Leave 170: The news cruelled him. He knew what it meant.