Evil

• POS: Adjective, Noun, Adverb
• HYPHEN: e=vil

CIDE DICTIONARY

Evil, a. [OE. evel, evil, ifel, uvel, AS. yfel; akin to OFries, evel, D. euvel, OS. & OHG. ubil, G. Übel, Goth. ubils, and perh. to E. over.].

•  Having qualities tending to injury and mischief; having a nature or properties which tend to badness; mischievous; not good; worthless or deleterious; poor; as, an evil beast; and evil plant; an evil crop.  [1913 Webster]

  "A good tree can not bring forth evil fruit."  [1913 Webster]
•  Having or exhibiting bad moral qualities; morally corrupt; wicked; wrong; vicious; as, evil conduct, thoughts, heart, words, and the like.  [1913 Webster]

  "Ah, what a sign it is of evil life,
  When death's approach is seen so terrible."  [1913 Webster]
•  Producing or threatening sorrow, distress, injury, or calamity; unpropitious; calamitous; as, evil tidings; evil arrows; evil days.  [1913 Webster]

  " Evil is sometimes written as the first part of a compound (with or without a hyphen). In many cases the compounding need not be insisted on. Examples: Evil doer or evildoer, evil speaking or evil-speaking, evil worker, evil wishing, evil-hearted, evil-minded."

  "Because he hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel."  [1913 Webster]

  "The owl shrieked at thy birth -- an evil sign."  [1913 Webster]

  "Evil news rides post, while good news baits."  [1913 Webster]

  "It almost led him to believe in the evil eye."

Syn. -- Mischieveous; pernicious; injurious; hurtful; destructive; wicked; sinful; bad; corrupt; perverse; wrong; vicious; calamitous.

Evil, n. 

•  Anything which impairs the happiness of a being or deprives a being of any good; anything which causes suffering of any kind to sentient beings; injury; mischief; harm; -- opposed to good.  [1913 Webster]

  "Evils which our own misdeeds have wrought."  [1913 Webster]

  "The evil that men do lives after them."  [1913 Webster]
•  Moral badness, or the deviation of a moral being from the principles of virtue imposed by conscience, or by the will of the Supreme Being, or by the principles of a lawful human authority; disposition to do wrong; moral offence; wickedness; depravity.  [1913 Webster]

  "The heart of the sons of men is full of evil."  [1913 Webster]
•  malady or disease; especially in the phrase king's evil, the scrofula.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]

  "He [Edward the Confessor] was the first that touched for the evil."  [1913 Webster]

Evil, adv. 

 In an evil manner; not well; ill; badly; unhappily; injuriously; unkindly.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]
"It went evil with his house."  [1913 Webster]
"The Egyptians evil entreated us, and affected us."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Evil, adj. & n.
--adj.
1 morally bad; wicked.
2 harmful or tending to harm, esp. intentionally or characteristically.
3 disagreeable or unpleasant (has an evil temper).
4 unlucky; causing misfortune (evil days).
--n.
1 an evil thing; an instance of something evil.
2 evil quality; wickedness, harm.

Idiom

evil eye a gaze or stare superstitiously believed to be able to cause material harm. speak evil of slander.

Derivative

evilly adv. evilness n.

Etymology

OE yfel f. Gmc

THESAURUS

Evil

Loki, Nemesis, Set, Typhon, aberrant, abnormal, abominable, abomination, accursed, ado, affliction, agony, amorality, angry, anguish, annoyance, anxiety, apocalyptic, arrant, atrocious, atrocity, awful, backsliding, bad, badness, baleful, bane, baneful, base, baseness, befoulment, besetment, bitchy, black, blamable, blameworthy, blight, bodeful, boding, bother, breach, bugbear, burden, calamitous, calamity, can of worms, carnality, cataclysm, catastrophe, catastrophic, catty, corrupt, corruption, crime, crime against humanity, criminal, criminality, crooked, crushing burden, crying evil, curse, damage, damaging, damnable, dark, deadly, deadly sin, death, debt, defilement, degeneracy, degradation, deleterious, delinquency, delinquent, depraved, depravity, dereliction, despiteful, despoliation, destruction, destructive, detriment, detrimental, deviant, devilry, deviltry, diablerie, diabolism, difficult, dire, dirty, disadvantage, disagreeable, disaster, disastrous, disease, disgrace, disgraceful, disgusting, dishonest, dishonorable, distasteful, doomful, dreadful, dreary, enormity, error, evil nature, evil-minded, evil-starred, evildoing, evilness, execrable, failure, fateful, fault, felonious, felony, fetid, flagitious, flagitiousness, flagrant, foreboding, foul, foulness, genocide, ghastly, gloomy, great ado, grievance, grisly, guilty act, hard, hardly the thing, harm, harmful, hateful, havoc, headache, heavy sin, heinous, heinousness, hideous, horrible, horrid, hurt, hurtful, ignominious, ill, ill-boding, ill-fated, ill-omened, ill-starred, illegal, immoral, immorality, improper, impropriety, impurity, inaccurate, inappropriate, inauspicious, inconvenience, incorrect, indecorous, indiscretion, inexpedient, inexpiable sin, infamous, infamy, infection, infelicitous, inferior, infliction, iniquitous, iniquity, injurious, injury, injustice, insidious, invalid, knavery, knavish, lapse, lethal, loathsome, low, lowering, malefaction, malefic, maleficence, maleficent, malevolent, malfeasance, malign, malignant, malum, matter, menacing, mephitic, minor wrong, mischief, mischievous, misconduct, misdeed, misdemeanor, misery, misfeasance, misfortune, monstrous, moral delinquency, mortal sin, nasty, naughty, nefarious, nefariousness, nemesis, nonfeasance, not done, not the thing, noxious, obliquity, obscene, of evil portent, off-base, off-color, offense, offensive, ominous, omission, open wound, out-of-line, outrage, pain, peccability, peccadillo, peccancy, peccant, peck of troubles, perfidious, pernicious, pest, pestilence, pestilential, plague, poison, poisonous, pollution, portending, portentous, problem, prodigality, profligacy, putrid, rancorous, rank, recidivism, repellent, reprehensible, reprobacy, reprobate, repugnant, repulsive, revolting, ruin, ruinous, running sore, sacrilegious, satanism, scandal, scandalous, scourge, sea of troubles, shame, shameful, shameless, sin, sin of commission, sin of omission, sinful, sinful act, sinfulness, sinister, slip, somber, sorrow, spiteful, stinking, suffering, terrible, the worst, thorn, threatening, torment, tort, toxic, toxin, traitorous, transgression, treacherous, trespass, trip, trouble, trying, turpitude, ugly, unangelicalness, unchastity, uncleanness, underhanded, undue, unfavorable, unfit, unfitting, unforgivable, unfortunate, ungodliness, ungoodness, unhealthy, unkind, unlawful, unlucky, unmorality, unpardonable, unpleasant, unprincipled, unpromising, unpropitious, unrighteous, unrighteousness, unsaintliness, unscrupulous, unseemly, unskillful, unspeakable, unsuitable, untoward, unutterable sin, unvirtuousness, unworthy, venial sin, venom, vexation, vice, vicious, viciousness, vile, vileness, villainous, villainy, virulent, visitation, wantonness, waywardness, wicked, wickedness, woe, woeful, worry, wrathful, wrong, wrongdoing, wrongful

ROGET THESAURUS

Evil

Evil

N evil, ill, harm, hurt, mischief, nuisance, machinations of the devil, Pandora's box, ills that flesh is heir to, blow, buffet, stroke, scratch, bruise, wound, gash, mutilation, mortal blow, wound, immedicabile vulnus, damage, loss, disadvantage, prejudice, drawback, disaster, accident, casualty, mishap, bad job, devil to pay, calamity, bale, catastrophe, tragedy, ruin, adversity, mental suffering, demon, (Evil spirit) bane, (cause of evil), badness, (Production of Evil), painfulness, evil doer, outrage, wrong, injury, foul play, bad turn, ill turn, disservice, spoliation, grievance, crying evil, disastrous, bad, awry, out of joint, disadvantageous, amis, wrong, ill, to one's cost, moving accidents by flood and field.

Badness

N badness, hurtfulness, virulence, evil doer, bane, plague spot, evil star, ill wind, hoodoo, Jonah, snake in the grass, skeleton in the closet, amari aliquid, thorn in the side, malignity, malevolence, tender mercies, ill-treatment, annoyance, molestation, abuse, oppression, persecution, outrage, misusage, injury, knockout drops, badness, peccancy, abomination, painfulness, pestilence, guilt, depravity, hurtful, harmful, scathful, baneful, baleful, injurious, deleterious, detrimental, noxious, pernicious, mischievous, full of mischief, mischief-making, malefic, malignant, nocuous, noisome, prejudicial, disserviceable, disadvantageous, wide-wasting, unlucky, sinister, obnoxious, untoward, disastrous, oppressive, burdensome, onerous, malign, corrupting &c (corrupt), virulent, venomous, envenomed, corrosive, poisonous, deadly, destructive, inauspicious, bad, ill, arrant, as bad as bad can be, dreadful, horrid, horrible, dire, rank, peccant, foul, fulsome, rotten, rotten at the core, vile, base, villainous, mean, injured, deteriorated, unsatisfactory, exceptionable indifferent, below par, illcontrived, ill-conditioned, wretched, sad, grievous, deplorable, lamentable, pitiful, pitiable, woeful, evil, wrong, depraved, shocking, reprehensible, hateful, hateful as a toad, abominable, detestable, execrable, cursed, accursed, confounded, damned, damnable, infernal, diabolic, unadvisable, unprofitable, incompetent, irremediable, badly, wrong, ill, to one's cost, where the shoe pinches, bad is the best: the worst come to the worst, herba mala presto cresco, wrongs unredressed or insults unavenged.

Bane

N bane, curse, evil, hurtfulness, painfulness, scourge, damnosa hereditas, white elephant, sting, fang, thorn, tang, bramble, brier, nettle, poison, toxin, teratogen, leaven, virus venom, arsenic, antimony, tartar emetic, strychnine, nicotine, miasma, miasm, mephitis, malaria, azote, sewer gas, pest, Albany hemp, arsenious oxide, arsenious acid, bichloride of mercury, carbonic acid, carbonic gas, choke damp, corrosive sublimate, fire damp, hydrocyanic acid, cyanide, Prussic acid, hydrogen cyanide, marsh gas, nux vomica, ratsbane, hemlock, hellebore, nightshade, belladonna, henbane, aconite, banewort, bhang, ganja, hashish, Upas tree, Toxline (online), rust, worm, helminth, moth, moth and rust, fungus, mildew, dry rot, canker, cankerworm, cancer, torpedo, viper, demon, toxicology, baneful, poisonous, phr, bibere venenum in auro, Contingent Subservience.

Adversity

N adversity, evil, failure, bad luck, ill luck, evil luck, adverse luck, hard fortune, hard hap, hard luck, hard lot, frowns of fortune, evil dispensation, evil star, evil genius, vicissitudes of life, ups and downs of life, broken fortunes, hard case, hard lines, hard life, sea of troubles, peck of troubles, hell upon earth, slough of despond, trouble, hardship, curse, blight, blast, load, pressure, pressure of the times, iron age, evil day, time out of joint, hard times, bad times, sad times, rainy day, cloud, dark cloud, gathering clouds, ill wind, visitation, infliction, affliction, bitter pill, care, trial, the sport of fortune, mishap, mischance, misadventure, misfortune, disaster, calamity, catastrophe, accident, casualty, cross, reverse, check, contretemps, rub, backset, comedown, setback, losing game, falling, fall, downfall, ruination, ruinousness, undoing, extremity, ruin, unfortunate, unblest, unhappy, unlucky, improsperous, unprosperous, hoodooed, luckless, hapless, out of luck, in trouble, in a bad way, in an evil plight, under a cloud, clouded, ill off, badly off, in adverse circumstances, poor, behindhand, down in the world, decayed, undone, on the road to ruin, on its last legs, on the wane, in one's utmost need, planet-struck, devoted, born under an evil star, born with a wooden ladle in one's mouth, ill-fated, ill-starred, ill-omened, adverse, untoward, disastrous, calamitous, ruinous, dire, deplorable.