Vicious
adj, name ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Violent, destructive and cruel.
- 2 Savage and aggressive.
"He had always been remarkably immune from such little ailments, and had only once in his life been ill, of a vicious pneumonia long ago at school. He hadn't the faintest idea what to with a cold in the head, he just took quinine and continued to blow his nose."
- 3 Pertaining to vice; characterised by immorality or depravity. archaic
"We may so seize on vertue, that if we embrace it with an over-greedy and violent desire, it may become vicious."
- 1 marked by deep ill will; deliberately harmful wordnet
- 2 (of persons or their actions) able or disposed to inflict pain or suffering wordnet
- 3 bringing or deserving severe rebuke or censure wordnet
- 4 having the nature of vice wordnet
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples"The answer leads us to a vicious circle."
Etymology
PIE word *dwóh₁ From Middle English vicious, from Anglo-Norman vicious, (modern French vicieux), from Latin vitiōsus, from vitium (“fault, vice”). Equivalent to vice + -ous.
Originally a nickname for a vicious person.
Related phrases
More for "vicious"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.