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Pertaining to, or obtained from, apples; as, malic acid. Malic acid, a hydroxy acid obtained as a substance which is sirupy or crystallized with difficulty, and has a strong but pleasant sour taste. It occurs in many fruits, as in green apples, currants, etc. It is levorotatory or dextrorotatory according to the temper…

ther; a disposition to injure another; a malignant design of evil. "Nor set down aught in malice." Shak. Envy, hatred, and malice are three distinct passions of the mind. Ld. Holt.

Mischief. [Obs.] Shak.

Indulging or exercising malice; harboring ill will or enmity. I grant him bloody, . . . Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin That has a name. Shak.

Pertaining to, or designating, an organic acid metameric with malic acid.

Pertaining to, or designating, an acid now called maleic acid.

Premeditated; prepense; previously in mind; designed; as, malice aforethought, which is required to constitute murder. Bouvier.

Seemingly; in appearance; as, a man may be apparently friendly, yet malicious in heart.

The quality of being arch; cleverness; sly humor free from malice; waggishness. Goldsmith.

The malicious burning of a dwelling house or outhouse of another man, which by the common law is felony; the malicious and voluntary firing of a building or ship. Wharton.

Poisonous; malignant; malicious. [Obs.] Chaucer.

smuch as. [Obs. or Colloq.] And being you have Declined his means, you have increased his malice. Beau. & Fl.

Sullenly; threateningly; maliciously; so as to produce blackness.

[Obs.] Ifs and ands to qualify the words of treason, whereby every man might express his malice and blanch his danger. Bacon. I suppose you will not blanch Paris in your way. Reliq. Wot.

To accuse falsely and maliciously of a crime or offense, or of something disreputable; to slander; to libel. Hatred unto the truth did always falsely report and calumniate all godly men's doings. Strype. Syn. asperse; slander; defame; vilify; traduce; belie; bespatter; blacken; libel. See Asperse.

False accusation of crime or offense, or a malicious and false representation of the words or actions of another, with a view to injure his good name. The calumniation of her principal counselors. Bacon.

Containing or implying calumny; false, malicious, and injurious to reputation; slanderous; as, calumnious reports. Virtue itself 'scapes not calumnious strokes. Shak.

False accusation of a crime or offense, maliciously made or reported, to the injury of another; malicious misrepresentation; slander; detraction. "Infamouse calumnies." Motley. Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Shak.

or as if diseased, with canker; to grow corrupt; to become venomous. Deceit and cankered malice. Dryden. As with age his body uglier grows, So his mind cankers. Shak.

Perverse; contentious; ugly; malicious. [Colloq.] -- Can*tan"ker*ous*ly, adv. -- Can*tan"ker*ous*ness, n. The cantankerous old maiden aunt. Theckeray.