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

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

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.

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

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.

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

ing the characteristics, of a cur; snarling; quarrelsome; snappish; churlish; hence, also malicious; malignant; brutal. Thy currish spirit Governed a wolf. Shak. Some currish plot, -- some trick. Lockhart. -- Cur"rish*ly, adv. -- Cur"rish*ness, n.

Froward; malignant; mischievous; malicious; snarling. [Obs.] Though his mind Be ne'er so curst, his tonque is kind. Crashaw.

uring another's reputation by any slanderous communication, written or oral; the wrong of maliciously injuring the good name of another; slander; detraction; calumny; aspersion.

harm or destroy the good fame or reputation of; to disgrace; especially, to speak evil of maliciously; to dishonor by slanderous reports; to calumniate; to asperse.

Malice; malignity; spite; malicious anger; contemptuous hate. With all thy despite against the land of Israel. Ezek. xxv. 6.

Full of despite; expressing malice or contemptuous hate; malicious. -- De*spite"ful*ly, adv. -- De*spite"ful*ness, n. Haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters. Rom. i. 30. Pray for them which despitefully use you. Matt. v. 44. Let us examine him with despitefulness and fortune. Book of Wisdom ii. 19.…

Feeling or showing despite; malicious; angry to excess; cruel; contemptuous. [Obs.] "Despiteous reproaches." Holland.

One who detracts; a detractor. Other detracters and malicious writers. Sir T. North.

; to goad; to urge or egg on. [Obs.] By such reasonings, the simple were blinded, and the malicious edged. Hayward.

ition, feeling, act, etc.; jealously pained by the excellence or good fortune of another; maliciously grudging; -- followed by of, at, and against; as, an envious man, disposition, attack; envious tongues. My soul is envious of mine eye. Keble. Neither be thou envious at the wicked. Prov. xxiv. 19.