Search the Dictionary

arnestness; a counterfeit appearance. It is, as the air, invulnerable, And our vain blows malicious mockery. Shak. Grace at meals is now generally so performed as to look more like a mockery upon devotion than any solemn application of the mind to God. Law. And bear about the mockery of woe. Pope.

Having the quality of injuring or killing; destructive; very mischievous; baleful; malicious; wicked. Let this pernicious hour Stand aye accursed in the calendar. Shak. Pernicious to his health. Prescott.

To intend; to design; to plot; to attempt. [Obs.] Such as shall pretend Malicious practices against his state. Shak.

Full of rancor; evincing, or caused by, rancor; deeply malignant; implacably spiteful or malicious; intensely virulent. So flamed his eyes with rage and rancorous ire. Spenser.

To retort; to throw back; as, to return the lie. If you are a malicious reader, you return upon me, that I affect to be thought more impartial than I am. Dryden.

To inflict injury for, in a spiteful, wrong, or malignant spirit; to wreak vengeance for maliciously.

Full of, or prone to, revenge; vindictive; malicious; revenging; wreaking revenge. If thy revengeful heart can not forgive. Shak. May my hands . . . Never brandish more rebvengeful steel. Shak.

Malicious waste or destruction of an employer's property or injury to his interests by workmen during labor troubles.

Of or pertaining to Satan; having the qualities of Satan; resembling Satan; extremely malicious or wicked; devilish; infernal. "Satanic strength." "Satanic host." Milton. Detest the slander which, with a Satanic smile, exults over the character it has ruined. Dr. T. Dwight. -- Sa*tan"ic*al*ly, adv. -- Sa*tan"ic*al*nes…

The evil and malicious disposition of Satan; a diabolical sprit. [R.]

Reproachful aspersion; opprobrious censure; defamatory talk, uttered heedlessly or maliciously. You must not put another scandal on him. Shak. My known virtue is from scandal free. Dryden.

Fig.: A subtle, treacherous, malicious person.

Wicked; malicious. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Inclining to shrew; disposing to curse or scold; hence, vicious; malicious; evil; wicked; mischievous; vexatious; rough; unfair; shrewish. [Obs.] Chaucer. [Egypt] hath many shrewd havens, because of the great rocks that ben strong and dangerous to pass by. Sir J. Mandeville. Every of this happy number That have endured…

A false tale or report maliciously uttered, tending to injure the reputation of another; the malicious utterance of defamatory reports; the dissemination of malicious tales or suggestions to the injury of another. Whether we speak evil of a man to his face or behind his back; the former way, indeed, seems to be the mos…

To speak crossly; to talk in rude, surly terms. It is malicious and unmanly to snarl at the little lapses of a pen, from which Virgil himself stands not exempted. Dryden.

To treat maliciously; to try to injure or thwart.

Filled with, or showing, spite; having a desire to vex, annoy, or injure; malignant; malicious; as, a spiteful person or act. Shak. -- Spite"ful*ly, adv. Spite"ful*ness, n.

Affected with spleen; malicious; spiteful; peevish; fretful. "Splenetic guffaw." G. Eliot. You humor me when I am sick; Why not when I am splenetic Pope.

Fig.: To injure secretly or by malicious falsehood or slander; as, to stab a person's reputation.