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Vicious

//ˈvɪʃəs// adj, name

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Violent, destructive and cruel.
  2. 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. 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."

Adjective
  1. 1
    marked by deep ill will; deliberately harmful wordnet
  2. 2
    (of persons or their actions) able or disposed to inflict pain or suffering wordnet
  3. 3
    bringing or deserving severe rebuke or censure wordnet
  4. 4
    having the nature of vice wordnet
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.

Etymology

Etymology 1

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.

Etymology 2

Originally a nickname for a vicious person.

See also for "vicious"

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