Pernicious

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Pernicious \Per*ni"cious\, a. [L. pernix, -icis.]
     Quick; swift (to burn). [R.] --Milton.
     [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:



  Pernicious \Per*ni"cious\, a. [L. perniciosus, from pernicies
     destruction, from pernecare to kill or slay outright; per +
     necare to kill, slay: cf. F. pernicieux. Cf. {Nuisance},
     {Necromancy}.]
     Having the quality of injuring or killing; destructive; very
     mischievous; baleful; malicious; wicked.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           Let this pernicious hour
           Stand aye accursed in the calendar.      --Shak.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           Pernicious to his health.                --Prescott.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     Syn: Destructive; ruinous; deadly; noxious; injurious;
          baneful; deleterious; hurtful; mischievous.
          [1913 Webster] -- {Per*ni"cious*ly}, adv., --
          {Per*ni"cious*ness}, n.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  pernicious
       adj 1: exceedingly harmful [syn: {baneful}, {deadly}, {pestilent}]
       2: working or spreading in a hidden and usually injurious way;
          "glaucoma is an insidious disease"; "a subtle poison"
          [syn: {insidious}, {subtle}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  57 Moby Thesaurus words for "pernicious":
     baleful, baneful, brutal, corroding, corrosive, corrupting,
     corruptive, counterproductive, damaging, deadly, death-bringing,
     deathful, deathly, deleterious, destructive, detrimental,
     devastating, disadvantageous, disserviceable, distressing, fatal,
     feral, harmful, hurtful, injurious, internecine, killing, lethal,
     malefic, maleficent, malevolent, malign, malignant, miasmatic,
     miasmic, mischievous, mortal, noisome, noxious, ominous,
     pestiferous, pestilent, pestilential, poisonous, prejudicial,
     ruinous, savage, scatheful, sinister, swart, toxic, venenate,
     veneniferous, venenous, venomous, vicious, virulent