Search the Dictionary

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.

ig.: Sensitive; tender; easily pained, grieved, or vexed; very susceptible of irritation. Malice and hatred are very fretting and vexatious, and apt to make our minds sore and uneasy. Tillotson.

red toward another, accompanied with the disposition to irritate, annoy, or thwart; petty malice; grudge; rancor; despite. Pope. This is the deadly spite that angers. Shak.

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.

Anger; latent spite; ill humor; malice; as, to vent one's spleen. In noble minds some dregs remain, Not yet purged off, of spleen and sour disdain. Pope.

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.

startle; to alarm; to rouse; to cause to flee or fly; as, the hounds started a fox. Upon malicious bravery dost thou come To start my quiet Shak. Brutus will start a spirit as soon as Cæsar. Shak.

To kill with hunger; as, maliciously to starve a man is, in law, murder.

shall stick. Shak. If on your fame our sex a bolt has thrown, 'T will ever stick through malice of your own. Young.

One who officiously tells tales; one who impertinently or maliciously communicates intelligence, scandal, etc., and makes mischief. Spies and talebearers, encouraged by her father, did their best to inflame her resentment. Macaulay.

The act of informing officiously; communication of sectrts, scandal, etc., maliciously.

is true; freedom from falsehood; veracity. If this will not suffice, it must appear That malice bears down truth. Shak.

Incidental or opportune deed or office; occasional act of kindness or malice; as, to do one an ill turn. Had I not done a friendes turn to thee Chaucer. thanks are half lost when good turns are delayed. Fairfax.

Spite; malice; malignity; evil quality. Chaucer. "The venom of such looks." Shak.

A harassing by process of law; a vexing or troubling, as by a malicious suit. Bacon.