Search the Dictionary

Tending to impair or damage; injurious; mischievous; occasioning loss or injury; as, hurtful words or conduct.

unfavorable; unpropitious; contrary to one's wishes; unfortunate; calamitous; afflictive; hurtful; as, adverse fates, adverse circumstances, things adverse. Happy were it for us all if we bore prosperity as well and wisely as we endure an adverse fortune. Southey. Adverse possession (Law), a possession of real property…

Accustomedness; habit; habitual use. Assuetude of things hurtful doth make them lose their force to hurt. Bacon.

Wanting good qualities, whether physical or moral; injurious, hurtful, inconvenient, offensive, painful, unfavorable, or defective, either physically or morally; evil; vicious; wicked; -- the opposite of good; as a bad man; bad conduct; bad habits; bad soil; bad health; bad crop; bad news.

Abatement of noxious qualities; the counteraction of what is inconvenient or hurtful in its effects; as, the correction of acidity in the stomach.

Hurtful; pernicious. [R.] That it be not demageable unto your royal majesty. Hakluit.

Hurtful; noxious; destructive; pernicious; as, a deleterious plant or quality; a deleterious example. -- Del`e*te"ri*ous*ly, adv. -- Del`e*te"ri*ous*ness, n.

Causing detriment; injurious; hurtful. Neither dangerous nor detrimental to the donor. Addison.

e and malevolent, the other gentle, See Kobold. No goblin or swart fairy of the mine Hath hurtful power over true virginity. Milton.

Full of harm; injurious; hurtful; mischievous. " Most harmful hazards." Strype. --Harm"ful*ly, adv. -- Harm"ful*ness, n.

To call down by prayer, as something hurtful or calamitous. Imprecate the vengeance of Heaven on the guilty empire. Mickle.

Mischievous; hurtful; harassing. [Obs.] Spenser.

Inimical; hurtful. [Obs.] Evelyn.

Causing injury or harm; hurtful; harmful; detrimental; mischievous; as, acts injurious to health, credit, reputation, property, etc. Without being injurious to the memory of our English Pindar. Dryden.

In an injurious or hurtful manner; wrongfully; hurtfully; mischievously.

The quality of being injurious or hurtful; harmfulness; injury.

Free from hurtful qualities or effects; harmless. "Innoxious flames." Sir K. Digby.

The incoming or first attack of anything hurtful or pernicious; as, the invasion of a disease.

Doing mischief; causing harm or evil; nefarious; hurtful. [R.] Chaucer.

Causing mischief; harmful; hurtful; -- now often applied where the evil is done carelessly or in sport; as, a mischievous child. "Most mischievous foul sin." Shak. This false, wily, doubling disposition is intolerably mischievous to society. South.