Cruelty-free means made without testing on animals. A cruelty-free brand, cruelty-free cosmetics, certified cruelty-free.
The term is not legally defined in most places, so it can mean the finished product was not tested while the ingredients were. Certification schemes exist because the label alone guarantees nothing.
1adjectivecruelty-freeMade without testing on animals.
“She only buys cruelty-free shampoo and checks every label before she pays.”
cruelty-free is a quality.
Cruelty plus free, on the pattern of the many -free labels used in marketing.
Proto-Indo-European
*krewh₂-
Latin
crudelitas
Old French
crualté
Middle English
cruelte
English
cruelty
English, today
cruelty-free
From cruelty + free. cruelty comes from Middle English cruelte, from Old French crualté (French cruauté), from Latin crudelitas. by surface analysis, cruel + -ty.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA