Pessimal

4 definitions found

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

  pessimal \pes"si*mal\ adj.
     Least favorable for survival; -- of an organism's
     environment.
  
     Syn: pessimum(prenominal).
          [WordNet 1.5]



From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  pessimal
       adj : of an organism's environment; least favorable for survival
             [syn: {pessimum(a)}]

From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:

  pessimal /pes'im-l/ adj. [Latin-based antonym for `optimal'] Maximally
     bad. "This is a pessimal situation." Also `pessimize' vt. To make as bad
     as possible. These words are the obvious Latin-based antonyms for
     `optimal' and `optimize', but for some reason they do not appear in most
     English dictionaries, although `pessimize' is listed in the OED.
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  pessimal
       
          /pes'im-l/ (Latin-based antonym for "optimal") Maximally bad.
          "This is a pessimal situation."  Also "pessimise" To make as
          bad as possible.  These words are the obvious Latin-based
          antonyms for "optimal" and "optimise", but for some reason
          they do not appear in most English dictionaries, although
          "pessimise" is listed in the OED.
       
          [{Jargon File}]
       
          (1995-02-01)