Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A villain; a rogue.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A base, mean, worthless fellow; a rascal; a low villain; a man without honor or virtue.
- n. Synonyms Knave, rogue, cheat, swindler, sharper.
- Belonging to or characteristic of a scoundrel; base; mean; unprincipled.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A mean, worthless fellow; a rascal; a villain; a man without honor or virtue.
- adj. Low; base; mean; unprincipled.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a wicked or evil person; someone who does evil deliberately
Etymologies
- Origin unknown.
Examples
“Berthiers intrigue for him: -- old Foulon, who has now nothing to do but intrigue; who is known and even seen to be what they call a scoundrel; but of unmeasured wealth; who, from Commissariat-clerk which he once was, may hope, some think, if the game go right, to be Minister himself one day.”
“Thomas Jefferson said the first act of a scoundrel is to wrap himself in the flag.”
“Whether I'm zealot or scoundrel is beside the point.”
“Certainly this scoundrel is not the first to think M.”
“The last refuge of a scoundrel is to change discussion to absolutes that have never stated by anyone to make a point.”
Protesters Demand UVa Contractors Living Wage at cvillenews.com
“I haven't a thought that didn't come from my father; not a passion that didn't come from my mother; and now this last -- this about all human creatures being equal -- I got that from him, my fiancé -- whom I call a scoundrel for that reason!”
“But M. Fortunat, in whose heart the word scoundrel was still rankling, stopped him.”
“If you apply the word scoundrel to Captain O'Brien, sir, in his name I contradict it.”
“Using the Smuggler as an example, you could choose to configure the cowboy opportunist as a "scoundrel" - a short-range stealth rogue, skilled in medicine - or a”
“If this scoundrel was a Republican the article would have written in BOLD letters GOP Senator from Montana.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘scoundrel’.
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Unsavory characters
absconder, aretaloger, arriviste, avaunter, bamboozler, bandit, banger, barbarian, barmecide, barrator, beldam, blatherskite and 190 more...
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Bad Options
words for those who commit particular crimes: i.e., bank robber, arsonist, etc.
liar, cheat, traitor, arsonist, felon, braggard, thief, profiteer, impostor, phony, fraud, culprit and 194 more...
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Unknown
coalition, cabinet, tweet, defuse, steep, ancestral, mindset, breach, infraction, egregious, curb, backbite and 280 more...
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Dirty Deeds, Acts & Villainous Arcana
Villains, evildoers, and the wonderful words to describe them.
putsch, internecine, galère, stygian, infernal, opprobrium, anathema, bruit, scurrility, mulct, misanthropic, invective and 102 more...
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Rogue
Terms describing roguish persons.
hellcat, she-devil, depraved, blackguard, rapscallion, knave, rascal, blasphemer, heretic, sinner, damnable, ne'er-do-well and 8 more...
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From The Brothers Karamozov
I either liked the word usage or I didn't know the word.
supercilious, Anathema, Casuist, Incorrigible, decrepit, fanfaronade, axiom, muddleheaded, anthropophagie, callow, swaggar, opined and 8 more...
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wenbo's recent words

hernesheir "What contemptible scoundrel stole the cork from my lunch?" -- W.C. Fields Sep 21, 2009