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  1. vicious love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Having the nature of vice; evil, immoral, or depraved.
  2. adj. Given to vice, immorality, or depravity.
  3. adj. Spiteful; malicious: vicious gossip.
  4. adj. Disposed to or characterized by violent or destructive behavior. See Synonyms at cruel.
  5. adj. Marked by an aggressive disposition; savage. Used chiefly of animals.
  6. adj. Severe or intense; fierce: a vicious storm.
  7. adj. Faulty, imperfect, or otherwise impaired by defects or a defect: a forced, vicious style of prose.
  8. adj. Impure; foul.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Characterized by vice or imperfection; faulty; defective.
  2. Addicted to vice; habitually transgressing moral law; depraved; profligate; wicked.
  3. Contrary to moral principles or to rectitude; perverse; pernicious; evil; bad.
  4. Impure; foul; vitiated: as, vicious humors.
  5. Faulty; incorrect; not pure; corrupt: as, a vicious style.
  6. Not well broken or trained; given to objectionable tricks: said of an animal.
  7. Characterized by severity; virulent; malignant; spiteful: as, a vicious attack.
  8. Synonyms and Wicked, Depraved, etc. (see criminal), unprincipled, licentious, profligate.
  9. Refractory, ugly.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. Pertaining to vice; characterised by immorality or depravity.
  2. adj. Evil, immoral or depraved.
  3. adj. Violent, destructive and cruel.
  4. adj. Savage and aggressive.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Characterized by vice or defects; defective; faulty; imperfect.
  2. adj. Addicted to vice; corrupt in principles or conduct; depraved; wicked.
  3. adj. Wanting purity; foul; bad; noxious.
  4. adj. Not correct or pure; corrupt.
  5. adj. Not well tamed or broken; given to bad tricks; unruly; refractory.
  6. adj. colloq. Bitter; spiteful; malignant.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. (of persons or their actions) able or disposed to inflict pain or suffering
  2. adj. marked by deep ill will; deliberately harmful
  3. adj. having the nature of vice
  4. adj. bringing or deserving severe rebuke or censure

Etymologies

  1. From Anglo-Norman vicious, Old French vicious (modern French vicieux), from Latin vitiōsus, from vitium ("fault, vice"). (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English, from Old French vicieus, from Latin vitiōsus, from vitium, vice. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “I borrowed the term vicious cycle as it did in cycle for the past 71 years or once less than every 4 years.”

    Why Thailand Will Not Stage the Next Military Coup

  • “When I use the term vicious, it is for the sake of talking your language; for, if we came to explanations, it might happen that you called vice what I call virtue, and virtue what I call vice.”

    Diderot and the Encyclopædists Volume II.

  • “The Palestinian Authority urged the international community to intervene and implement the two-state solution, saying that is the only way to end what it called the "vicious cycle of violence.”

    Voice of America: Israel Approves More Settler Homes in West Bank

  • “To be clear, if you're using this event to criticize the "rhetoric" of Mrs. Palin or others with whom you disagree, then you're either: (a) asserting a connection between the "rhetoric" and the shooting, which based on evidence to date would be what we call a vicious lie; or (b) you're not, in which case you're just seizing on a tragedy to try to score unrelated political points, which is contemptible.”

    The Wall Street Journal: The Arizona Tragedy and the Politics of Blood Libel

  • “To be clear, if you're using this event to criticize the 'rhetoric' of Mrs. Palin or others with whom you disagree, then you're either: (a) asserting a connection between the 'rhetoric' and the shooting, which based on evidence to date would be what we call a vicious lie; or (b) you're not, in which case you're just seizing on a tragedy to try to score unrelated political points, which is contemptible.”

    The Washington Post: Morning Bits

  • “After Trump spoke, the 21-year-old Prejean, who was accompanied by her parents, took her turn at the lectern, defending herself against what she described as vicious attacks.”

    Miss California KEEPS The Crown: Trump Compliments Her Beauty (VIDEO)

  • “JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Condemning what she calls vicious attacks, Hillary Clinton says those who carry them out are cowards.”

    CNN Transcript Oct 28, 2009

  • “The 21-year-old beauty queen also spoke, defending herself against what she called vicious attacks.”

    CNN Transcript May 12, 2009

  • “Condemning what she calls vicious attacks, Hillary Clinton says those who carry them out are cowards.”

    CNN Transcript Oct 28, 2009

  • “: The Chinese government lodged a formal complaint against U.S. television network CNN for what it called a vicious attack by commentator Jack Cafferty, who called Chinese leaders "goons" and described some of the country's products as "junk.”

    The Wall Street Journal: Parsing a U.S. Economy

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‘vicious’ has been looked up 4183 times, loved by 9 people, added to 43 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 12.