malison

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (1)  · 
1) On the Labdacidae I see descending Woe upon woe; from days of old some god Laid on the race a malison, and his rod Scourges each age with sorrows never ending The light that dawned upon its last born son Is vanished, and the bloody axe of Fate Has felled the goodly tree that blossomed late.

View all »
Definitions (3)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. noun Archaic A curse.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (1)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • When he dumped her unceremoniously by text message, Alison unleashed her most vicious malison: an unceasing replay of Chumbawumba in his head, for all time.
  • The mother puts her malison, or curse, upon him, but he rides off. —  Ballads of Scottish Tradition and Romance Popular Ballads of the Olden Times - Third Series
  • Surely from thee neither shall Typhoeus, nay, nor Chimaera of the evil name, shield death that layeth low, but here shall black earth and bright Hyperion make thee waste away So he spake in malison, and darkness veiled her eyes, and there the sacred strength of the sun did waste her quite away. —  The Homeric Hymns A New Prose Translation; and Essays, Literary and Mythological
  • He had a candle in his hand, which he shaded with his coat from her eye; his back was towards her, and he was rummaging in the drawer in which she usually kept her money Having got her quarter's pension of two pounds that day, however, she had placed it, folded in a rag, in the corner of her tea caddy, and locked it up in the "eat-malison" or cupboard She was frightened when she saw the figure in her room, and she could not tell whether her visitor might not have made his entrance from the contiguous churchyard. —  Madam Crowl's Ghost and the Dead Sexton
  • O! be his tomb as lead to lead 715 Upon its dull destroyer's head A minstrel's malison is said Then on its battlements they saw A vision, passing Nature's law Strange, wild, and dimly seen 720 Figures that seem'd to rise and die, Gibber and sign, advance and fly, While nought confirm'd could ear or eye Discern of sound or mien. —  Marmion
 

Tags

malison hasn't been tagged yet.

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 70 times.

On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English malisoun, from Old French maleiçon, from Latin maledictiō, maledictiōn-, from maledictus, past participle of maledīcere, to speak ill, curse; see maledict.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Formerly also mallison; from Middle English malisoun, malisun, malison, from Old French malison, malizon, maleïcon, maleiceon, maldeceon, maldisson, from Latin maledictio(n-), an evil speaking, reviling, cursing: see malediction. Cf. benison.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »

/ˈmælɪzən/
by American Heritage

Charts

frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

We are still working on calculating this word's frequency.

Recently looked up

nimbus · ontology · Ouster · depressants · gonorrhea

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

Der dicke Dachdecker deckte dir dein Dach, drum dank dem dicken Dachdecker, dass der dicke Dachdecker dir dein Dach deckte. · weitläufig · und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, so leben sie noch heute · redescheu · selbstverständlich