malicious
Appearance
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]- malitious (obsolete)
Etymology
[edit]From Middle English malicious, from Old French malicios, from Latin malitiōsus, from malitia (“malice”), from malus (“bad”). Displaced native Middle English ivelwilled and ivelwilly (“malicious”), related to Old English yfelwillende (literally “evil-willing”).
Pronunciation
[edit]- enPR: məlĭsh'əs, IPA(key): /məˈlɪʃəs/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Adjective
[edit]malicious (comparative more malicious, superlative most malicious)
- Intending to do harm; characterized by spite and malice.
- Synonyms: evil, maleficent, malevolent; see also Thesaurus:evil
- He was sent off for a malicious tackle on Jones.
- 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 169:
- They gathered soberly in the farthest recess of the ward and gossiped about him in malicious, offended undertones, rebelling against his presence as a ghastly imposition and resenting him malevolently for the nauseating truth of which he was bright reminder.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]of, pertaining to, or as a result of malice or spite
|
deliberately harmful; spiteful
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
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