Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Morally depraved; ignoble or wicked.
- adjective Disgusting; repulsive.
- adjective Unpleasant or objectionable: synonym: offensive.
- adjective Miserably poor and degrading; wretched.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To mako vile.
- Of small value; held in little esteem; low; base; mean; worthless; despicable.
- Morally base or impure; depraved; bad; wicked; abject; villainous; shameful: frequently used as an epithet of opprobrium, contempt, disgust, or odium generally.
- Synonyms Contemptible, beggarly, pitiful, scurvy, shabby.
- Groveling, ignoble, foul, knavish.
- noun A vile thing.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Low; base; worthless; mean; despicable.
- adjective Morally base or impure; depraved by sin; hateful in the sight of God and men; sinful; wicked; bad.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective morally low;
base ;despicable
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective morally reprehensible
- adjective causing or able to cause nausea
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Hastert told reporters today that no Republican congressional leader saw what he calls vile and repulsive instant messages sent by Foley in 2003 until this past Friday.
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Buttonholed while crossing the court-house lawn, and backed into a corner between the county clerk's office and the jail, Shelby had to listen with what patience he might to her denunciation of what she called his vile concord with Belial.
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Who is here playing the overseer over white men -- who but he, who is throwing his filthy gall and assailing everybody as Northern Whig Dough-faces, and what he calls the vile slave-holders?
Lands of the Slave and the Free Cuba, the United States, and Canada
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One ought, if possible, to have both girdle and character, and that is my object when I give myself importance by what you describe as vile arts, and poor unworthy tricks.
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Your mom’s dead, because Charlie Matthias is a freak and a murderer and a … a … He couldn’t find a word vile enough to describe that monster’s nature.
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The labor and the lives of ten thousand slaves had gone to the making of that bedchamber, while they themselves slept in vile lairs like wild beasts.
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Watch out for spewing vile from the mushrooms who the liberal 'eletists' cultivate so well.
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As a fellow southerner living up in vile Yankee land I get tired of this yankee propaganda.
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The Blair-ian (Tony, not Eric) mechanism by which Caroline Cartwright was thrown into durance vile is an "Anti-Social Behaviour Order" or ASBO/Asbo.
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The Blair-ian (Tony, not Eric) mechanism by which Caroline Cartwright was thrown into durance vile is an "Anti-Social Behaviour Order" or ASBO/Asbo.
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