Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Having the nature of vice; evil, immoral, or depraved.
- adj. Given to vice, immorality, or depravity.
- adj. Spiteful; malicious: vicious gossip.
- adj. Disposed to or characterized by violent or destructive behavior. See Synonyms at cruel.
- adj. Marked by an aggressive disposition; savage. Used chiefly of animals.
- adj. Severe or intense; fierce: a vicious storm.
- adj. Faulty, imperfect, or otherwise impaired by defects or a defect: a forced, vicious style of prose.
- adj. Impure; foul.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Characterized by vice or imperfection; faulty; defective.
- Addicted to vice; habitually transgressing moral law; depraved; profligate; wicked.
- Contrary to moral principles or to rectitude; perverse; pernicious; evil; bad.
- Impure; foul; vitiated: as, vicious humors.
- Faulty; incorrect; not pure; corrupt: as, a vicious style.
- Not well broken or trained; given to objectionable tricks: said of an animal.
- Characterized by severity; virulent; malignant; spiteful: as, a vicious attack.
- Synonyms and Wicked, Depraved, etc. (see criminal), unprincipled, licentious, profligate.
- Refractory, ugly.
Wiktionary
- adj. Pertaining to vice; characterised by immorality or depravity.
- adj. Evil, immoral or depraved.
- adj. Violent, destructive and cruel.
- adj. Savage and aggressive.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Characterized by vice or defects; defective; faulty; imperfect.
- adj. Addicted to vice; corrupt in principles or conduct; depraved; wicked.
- adj. Wanting purity; foul; bad; noxious.
- adj. Not correct or pure; corrupt.
- adj. Not well tamed or broken; given to bad tricks; unruly; refractory.
- adj. Bitter; spiteful; malignant.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. (of persons or their actions) able or disposed to inflict pain or suffering
- adj. marked by deep ill will; deliberately harmful
- adj. having the nature of vice
- adj. bringing or deserving severe rebuke or censure
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Old French vicieus, from Latin vitiōsus, from vitium, vice.
Examples
“I borrowed the term vicious cycle as it did in cycle for the past 71 years or once less than every 4 years.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“The 21-year-old beauty queen also spoke, defending herself against what she called vicious attacks.”
“Condemning what she calls vicious attacks, Hillary Clinton says those who carry them out are cowards.”
“: 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.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘vicious’.
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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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'icious!
words common and fictitious ending in -icious and -itious
delicious, discolicious, droolicious, auspicious, cocoalicious, riddleicious, fictitious, vicious, tralatitious, superstitious, officious, receptitious and 23 more...
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Violence
sucker punch, punch, bunch of fives, haymaker, bare-knuckle, punch-drunk, brawler, scrapper, hellkite, street fighter, gamecock, powerhouse and 30 more...
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Not Your Typical
wanderlust, querdenker, dodrantal, soporific, vicious, ampersand, desiderative, cynosure, sybaritic, ubiquitous, orthogonal, lacuna and 68 more...
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Something Vishy
peevish, ravish, vitiate, vishnu, lavish, dovish, dervish, slavish, knavish, vicious
Louises The hunger, in its vicious simplicity, teaches you how to be a werewolf. From "The Last Werewolf" by Glen Duncan.
Apr 1, 2012
Louises The first inkling of animal clarity was already there, a kind of vicious joy in the power that would come up through the soles of my feet into my ankles, shins, hips elbows, shoulders. If I lived that long. From "The Last Werewolf" by Glen Duncan.
Mar 27, 2012