infamous
AdjectiveOpen English WordNet
Adjective (1)
- known widely and usually unfavorably“a notorious gangster”“the tenderloin district was notorious for vice”“the infamous Benedict Arnold”Synonyms: ill-famednotoriousOpposite reputableSimilar disreputable
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Origin: Pref. in- not + famous: cf. L. infamis. See Infamy.
1. Of very bad report; having a reputation of the worst kind; held in abhorrence; guilty of something that exposes to infamy; base; notoriously vile; detestable; as, an infamous traitor; an infamous perjurer.
False errant knight, infamous, and forsworn.— Edmund Spenser
2. Causing or producing infamy; deserving detestation; scandalous to the last degree; as, an infamous act; infamous vices; infamous corruption. Thomas Babington Macaulay
3. Law Branded with infamy by conviction of a crime; as, at common law, an infamous person can not be a witness.
4. Having a bad name as being the place where an odious crime was committed, or as being associated with something detestable; hence, unlucky; perilous; dangerous. “Infamous woods.” Phineas Fletcher
Infamous hills, and sandy perilous wilds.— John Milton
The piny shade More infamous by cursed Lycaon made.— John Dryden
Synonyms: Detestable; odious; scandalous; disgraceful; base; vile; shameful; ignominious.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54