[syn: poisonous, venomous, vicious]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
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.
[1913 Webster]
Though I perchance am vicious in my guess. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
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]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
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, vicious]
2: having the nature of vice [syn: evil, vicious]
3: bringing or deserving severe rebuke or censure; "a criminal
waste of talent"; "a deplorable act of violence"; "adultery
is as reprehensible for a husband as for a wife" [syn:
condemnable, criminal, deplorable, reprehensible,
vicious]
4: marked by deep ill will; deliberately harmful; "poisonous
hate"; "venomous criticism"; "vicious gossip" [syn:
poisonous, venomous, vicious]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
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