Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Evil-doing; especially, witchcraft.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete An evil deed; artifice; enchantment.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete An evil deed; artifice; enchantment.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin maleficium: compare French maléfice. See malefactor.

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Examples

  • After that the brotha rebuked every sort of spell, malefice, witchcraft, and every form of the occult.

    The Exorsistah: X Returns Claudia Mair Burney 2010

  • From every sort of spell, malefice, witchcraft, and every form of the occult, we implore Thee, deliver us O Lord.

    Archive 2009-04-19 Esther 2009

  • From every sort of spell, malefice, witchcraft, and every form of the occult, we implore Thee, deliver us O Lord.

    Deliverance Prayer Esther 2009

  • The theorizing of the electronic text revolves constantly around what is "real" and what is not--whether the representation is of "the order of sacrament," or of perversions of reality orders of evil and malefice: a conversation posed as a uniquely post-postmodern crisis of truth, of body and mind and technology, of humanity itself, as though Socrates had never banned the poet from his Republic for creating representations three removes from the ideal, truth.

    thinking with my fingers Torill 2001

  • The theorizing of the electronic text revolves constantly around what is "real" and what is not--whether the representation is of "the order of sacrament," or of perversions of reality orders of evil and malefice: a conversation posed as a uniquely post-postmodern crisis of truth, of body and mind and technology, of humanity itself, as though Socrates had never banned the poet from his Republic for creating representations three removes from the ideal, truth.

    Archive 2001-12-01 Torill 2001

  • Reply Obj. 3: Christ's Passion was indeed a malefice on His slayers 'part; but on His own it was the sacrifice of one suffering out of charity.

    Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) From the Complete American Edition Aquinas Thomas

  • Therefore Christ's Passion was rather a malefice than a sacrifice.

    Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) From the Complete American Edition Aquinas Thomas

  • And hereof be said the enchanters of Pharaoh, Magi, which by their malefice made their marvels by the enchanting of the craft of the devil.

    The Golden Legend, vol. 1 1230-1298 1900

  • An inscrutable providence, of which our witness is the mouthpiece, has elected to set apart this rock in order that the devil and the English, who, he says, are a pair, may continue their work of protestantising and filling the world with malefice.

    Devil-Worship in France or The Question of Lucifer Arthur Edward Waite 1899

  • A white rag, an old bone lying in the path, might be a _malefice_ which, if trodden upon, would cause his leg to blacken and swell up to the size of the limb of an elephant; -- an unopened bundle of plantain leaves or of bamboo strippings, dropped by the way-side, might contain the skin of a

    Two Years in the French West Indies Lafcadio Hearn 1877

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