malicious

• malitious (obsolete)

From Middle English malicious, from Old French malicios, from Latin malitiōsus, from malitia (“malice”), from malus (“bad”). Displaced native Old English yfelwillende.

• enPR: məlĭsh'əs, IPA^(key): /məˈlɪʃəs/

• Audio (Southern England)

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malicious (comparative more malicious, superlative most malicious)

1. Intending to do harm; characterized by spite and malice.

   Synonym: malevolent

   He was sent off for a malicious tackle on Jones.

   • 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 169:

     They gathered soberly in the farthest recess of the ward and gossiped about him in malicious, offended undertones, rebelling against his presence as a ghastly imposition and resenting him malevolently for the nauseating truth of which he was bright reminder.

• malevolent
• evil
• See also Thesaurus:evil

• maliciously
• maliciousness
• malicious mischief
• malicious prosecution