Vicious

3 definitions found

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

  Vicious \Vi"cious\, a. [OF. vicious, F. vicieux, fr. L.
     vitiosus, fr. vitium vice. See {Vice} a fault.]
     1. Characterized by vice or defects; defective; faulty;
        imperfect.
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              Though I perchance am vicious in my guess. --Shak.
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              The title of these lords was vicious in its origin.
                                                    --Burke.
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              A charge against Bentley of vicious reasoning. --De
                                                    Quincey.
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     2. Addicted to vice; corrupt in principles or conduct;
        depraved; wicked; as, vicious children; vicious examples;
        vicious conduct.
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              Who . . . heard this heavy curse,
              Servant of servants, on his vicious race. --Milton.
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     3. Wanting purity; foul; bad; noxious; as, vicious air,
        water, etc. --Dryden.
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     4. Not correct or pure; corrupt; as, vicious language;
        vicious idioms.
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     5. Not well tamed or broken; given to bad tricks; unruly;
        refractory; as, a vicious horse.
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     6. Bitter; spiteful; malignant. [Colloq.]
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     Syn: Corrupt; faulty; wicked; depraved.
          [1913 Webster] -- {Vi"cious*ly}, adv. --
          {Vi"cious*ness}, n.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  vicious
       adj 1: (of persons or their actions) able or disposed to inflict
              pain or suffering; "a barbarous crime"; "brutal
              beatings"; "cruel tortures"; "Stalin's roughshod
              treatment of the kulaks"; "a savage slap"; "vicious
              kicks" [syn: {barbarous}, {brutal}, {cruel}, {fell}, {roughshod},
               {savage}]
       2: having the nature of vice [syn: {depraved}, {evil}]
       3: marked by deep ill will; deliberately harmful; "a malevolent
          lie"; "poisonous hate...in his eyes"- Ernest Hemingway;
          "venomous criticism"; "vicious gossip" [syn: {poisonous},
          {venomous}]

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

  199 Moby Thesaurus words for "vicious":
     Draconian, Tartarean, abominable, acrimonious, amoral, animal,
     anthropophagous, arrant, atrocious, bad, baleful, baneful,
     barbaric, barbarous, base, beastly, bestial, bitchy, bitter, black,
     blamable, blameworthy, bloodthirsty, bloody, bloody-minded, brutal,
     brutalized, brute, brutish, cannibalistic, concentrated,
     contaminated, corroding, corrosive, corrupt, corrupting,
     corruptive, counterproductive, criminal, cruel, cruel-hearted,
     damaging, damnable, dark, deadly, defamatory, degenerate, degraded,
     degrading, deleterious, demoniac, demoniacal, depraved, desperate,
     despiteful, detrimental, devilish, diabolic, diabolical,
     disadvantageous, disgraceful, disserviceable, distressing, evil,
     execrable, exquisite, faulty, fearful, fell, feral, ferine,
     ferocious, fiendish, fiendlike, fierce, flagitious, flagrant, foul,
     furious, harmful, hateful, heinous, hellish, hurtful, ill, immoral,
     improper, inaccurate, inauspicious, inexpedient, infamous,
     inferior, infernal, inhuman, inhumane, iniquitous, injurious,
     invalid, kill-crazy, knavish, lethal, low, malefic, malevolent,
     malicious, malign, malignant, mean, merciless, mischievous,
     miscreant, monstrous, murderous, nasty, naughty, nefarious,
     noisome, noncivilized, nonmoral, noxious, obnoxious, odious,
     ominous, opprobrious, peccant, pernicious, perverse, perverted,
     pitiless, poisonous, poor, prejudicial, profligate, putrid,
     rancorous, rank, ravening, reprehensible, reprobate, rotten,
     ruthless, sadistic, sanguinary, sanguineous, satanic, savage,
     scandalous, scatheful, septic, severe, shameful, shameless,
     sharkish, sinful, sinister, slanderous, slavering, spiteful,
     steeped in vice, subhuman, tameless, terrible, toxic, truculent,
     unchristian, uncivilized, unfavorable, unforgivable, ungentle,
     unhealthy, unhuman, unkind, unmoral, unpardonable, unpleasant,
     unprincipled, unskillful, unsound, unspeakable, untamed, untoward,
     unworthy, vehement, venal, venenate, veneniferous, venenous,
     venomous, vice-laden, vice-prone, vile, villainous, vindictive,
     violent, virulent, wicked, wild, wolfish, wrong