villainous

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (1)  · 
What separates the heroic from the villainous is the use, and abuse, of power.

View all »Definitions (12)

American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. adjective Appropriate to a villain, as in wickedness or depravity: a villainous plot.
  2. adjective Being or manifesting the nature of a villain: a villainous band of thieves.
  3. adjective Highly undesirable or offensive; obnoxious.

View all » Examples

  • [471] 'That's villainous, and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it.' —  Life Of Johnson
  • As the streets grew meaner and darker and the smell more villainous, so did McCrimmon's grip on his wrench tighten. —  The Lonely Sea
  • What separates the heroic from the villainous is the use, and abuse, of power. —  Buffalo Pundit
  • Between the liquor and the tales people begin to form new ideas to themselves of things, and instead of looking on robbery as rapine and stealing as a villainous method of defrauding another, they, on the contrary, take the first for a gallant action, and the latter for a dexterous piece of cunning; by either of which they acquire the means of indulging themselves in what best suits their inclinations, without the fatigue of business or the drudgery of hard labour. —  Lives Of The Most Remarkable Criminals Who have been Condemned and Executed
  • 6] There can be no doubt that in the character of the villainous, corrupt, greedy, vain, lascivious, but plausible Ochihatou Mrs. Haywood intended her readers to recognize a semblance of the English minister. —  The Life and Romances of Mrs Eliza Haywood
 

Tags

villainous hasn't been tagged yet.

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

Villainous has been looked up 331 times, favorited 0 times, listed 14 times, commented on once, and has a Scrabble score of 13.

On Twitter

Photos from

spinner

View all »Etymologies (3)

American Heritage Dictionary

Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Also villanous, and archaically villenous; (villain +-ous.
  2. from villainous, adjective

WordNet

 

Record your own »
Pronunciations

/ (vĭlˈə-nəs)/
by American Heritage Dictionary

Charts

Occurrences of the word "villainous" per million words:

Chart?cht=lc&chs=300x180&chg=14

Recent Lookups

cachectic · ideographic · ommission · reassume · the great prince of moscow · Calli · spires · loeffler's serum slope · Hathor · cryptophasia

Recent Favorites

glair · bereavement · vraic · Enceladus · Ypsilanti · catechumen · ichor · scaphism · alpenglow · pellucid

Recent Pronunciations

you're something of a hotdog, aren't you · wobble-om-metry · hypermiling · gendarmes · compost · pronounced limp · eucatastrophe · crafty · road rash · mountain chickadee