[syn: insidious, pernicious, subtle]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
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]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Pernicious \Per*ni"cious\, a. [L. pernix, -icis.]
Quick; swift (to burn). [R.] --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
pernicious
adj 1: exceedingly harmful [syn: baneful, deadly,
pernicious, pestilent]
2: working or spreading in a hidden and usually injurious way;
"glaucoma is an insidious disease"; "a subtle poison" [syn:
insidious, pernicious, subtle]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
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