Wordnet 3.0
ADJECTIVE (1)
1.
having the nature of or resulting from malice;
- Example: "malicious gossip"- Example: "took malicious pleasure in...watching me wince"- Rudyard Kipling
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Malicious \Ma*li"cious\, a. [Of. malicius, F. malicieux, fr. L.
malitiosus. See Malice.]
1. Indulging or exercising malice; harboring ill will or
enmity.
[1913 Webster]
I grant him bloody, . . .
Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin
That has a name. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
2. Proceeding from hatred or ill will; dictated by malice;
as, a malicious report; malicious mischief.
[1913 Webster]
3. (Law) With wicked or mischievous intentions or motives;
wrongful and done intentionally without just cause or
excuse; as, a malicious act.
[1913 Webster]
Malicious abandonment, the desertion of a wife or husband
without just cause. --Burrill.
Malicious prosecution or Malicious arrest (Law), a wanton
prosecution or arrest, by regular process in a civil or
criminal proceeding, without probable cause. --Bouvier.
[1913 Webster]
Syn: Ill-disposed; evil-minded; mischievous; envious;
malevolent; invidious; spiteful; bitter; malignant;
rancorous; malign.
[1913 Webster] -- Ma*li"cious*ly, adv. --
Ma*li"cious*ness, n.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
malicious
adj 1: having the nature of or resulting from malice; "malicious
gossip"; "took malicious pleasure in...watching me
wince"- Rudyard Kipling [ant: unmalicious]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
52 Moby Thesaurus words for "malicious":
acrid, antagonistic, antipathetic, baleful, baneful, belligerent,
bitchy, bitter, catty, caustic, clashing, colliding, conflicting,
cussed, deleterious, despiteful, detrimental, envious, evil,
full of hate, green, green-eyed, harmful, hateful, hostile,
iniquitous, invidious, jealous, malefic, maleficent, malevolent,
malign, malignant, mean, nasty, noxious, ornery, pernicious, petty,
poison-pen, poisonous, quarrelsome, rancorous, repugnant,
set against, sore, spiteful, venomous, vicious, virulent,
vitriolic, wicked
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):
MALICIOUS. With bad, and unlawful motives; wicked.