infamous

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: in=fa=mous

CIDE DICTIONARY

infamous, a. [Pref. in- not + famous: cf. L. infamis. See Infamy.].

•  Of very bad report; having a reputation of the worst kind; held in abhorrence; guilty of something that exposes to infamy; base; notoriously vile; detestable; as, an infamous traitor; an infamous perjurer.  [1913 Webster]

  "False errant knight, infamous, and forsworn."  [1913 Webster]
•  Causing or producing infamy; deserving detestation; scandalous to the last degree; as, an infamous act; infamous vices; infamous corruption.  Macaulay.  [1913 Webster]
•  Branded with infamy by conviction of a crime; as, at common law, an infamous person can not be a witness.  [1913 Webster]
•  Having a bad name as being the place where an odious crime was committed, or as being associated with something detestable; hence, unlucky; perilous; dangerous.  P. Fletcher.  [1913 Webster]

  "Infamous hills, and sandy perilous wilds."  [1913 Webster]

  "The piny shade
  More infamous by cursed Lycaon made."

Syn. -- Detestable; odious; scandalous; disgraceful; base; vile; shameful; ignominious.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

infamous, adj.
1 notoriously bad; having a bad reputation.
2 abominable.
3 (in ancient law) deprived of all or some rights of a citizen on account of serious crime.

Derivative

infamously adv. infamy n. (pl. -ies).

Etymology

ME f. med.L infamosus f. L infamis (as IN-(1), FAME)

THESAURUS

infamous

aberrant, abhorrent, abnormal, abominable, arrant, atrocious, awful, bad, base, beastly, beneath contempt, black, blackguardly, blamable, blameworthy, brutal, contemptible, corrupt, criminal, damnable, dark, degenerate, degraded, delinquent, deplorable, derogatory, despicable, detestable, deviant, dire, discreditable, disgraceful, disgusting, dishonorable, disreputable, dreadful, egregious, enormous, evil, execrable, fetid, filthy, flagitious, flagrant, foul, fulsome, grievous, gross, hardly the thing, hateful, heinous, horrible, horrid, ignoble, ignominious, illegal, improper, inappropriate, incorrect, indecorous, inglorious, iniquitous, knavish, lamentable, loathsome, lousy, low, miscreant, monstrous, nasty, naughty, nefarious, noisome, not done, not the thing, notorious, obnoxious, odious, off-base, off-color, offensive, opprobrious, out-of-line, outrageous, peccant, perverse, pitiable, pitiful, rank, rascally, recreant, regrettable, reprehensible, reprobate, repulsive, revolting, roguish, rotten, sacrilegious, sad, scampish, scandalous, schlock, scoundrelly, scurvy, seamy, shabby, shady, shameful, shameless, shocking, shoddy, sinful, sordid, sorry, squalid, stigmatized, terrible, too bad, unclean, undue, unfit, unfitting, unforgivable, unhealthy, unlawful, unpardonable, unpraiseworthy, unrespectable, unrighteous, unsavory, unseemly, unspeakable, unsuitable, unworthy, vicious, vile, villainous, wicked, woeful, worst, worthless, wretched, wrong, wrongful

ROGET THESAURUS

infamous

Disrepute

N disrepute, discredit, ill repute, bad repute, bad name, bad odor, bad favor, ill name, ill odor, ill favor, disapprobation, ingloriousness, derogation, abasement, debasement, abjectness, degradation, dedecoration, a long farewell to all my greatness, odium, obloquy, opprobrium, ignominy, dishonor, disgrace, shame, humiliation, scandal, baseness, vileness, turpitude, infamy, tarnish, taint, defilement, pollution, stain, blot, spot, blur, stigma, brand, reproach, imputation, slur, crying shame, burning shame, scandalum magnatum, badge of infamy, blot in one's escutcheon, bend sinister, bar sinister, champain, point champain, byword of reproach, Ichabod, argumentum ad verecundiam, sense of shame, disgraced, blown upon, shorn of its beams, shorn of one's glory, overcome, downtrodden, loaded with shame, in bad repute, out of repute, out of favor, out of fashion, out of countenance, at a discount, under a cloud, under an eclipse, unable to show one's face, in the shade, in the background, out at elbows, down at the elbows, down in the world, inglorious, nameless, renownless, obscure, unknown to fame, unnoticed, unnoted, unhonored, unglorified, shameful, disgraceful, discreditable, disreputable, despicable, questionable, unbecoming, unworthy, derogatory, degrading, humiliating, infra dignitatem, dedecorous, scandalous, infamous, too bad, unmentionable, ribald, opprobrious, errant, shocking, outrageous, notorious, ignominious, scrubby, dirty, abject, vile, beggarly, pitiful, low, mean, shabby base, to one's shame be it spoken, Int, fie!, shame!, for shame!, proh pudor!, O tempora!, O mores!, ough!, sic transit gloria mundi!.

Improbity

N improbity, dishonesty, dishonor, deviation from rectitude, disgrace, fraud, lying, bad faith, Punic faith, mala fides, Punica fides, infidelity, faithlessness, Judas kiss, betrayal, breach of promise, breach of trust, breach of faith, prodition, disloyalty, treason, high treason, apostasy, nonobservance, shabbiness, villainy, villany, baseness, abjection, debasement, turpitude, moral turpitude, laxity, trimming, shuffling, perfidy, perfidiousness, treachery, double dealing, unfairness, knavery, roguery, rascality, foul play, jobbing, jobbery, graft, bribery, venality, nepotism, corruption, job, shuffle, fishy transaction, barratry, sharp practice, heads I win tails you lose, mouth honor, dishonest, dishonorable, unconscientious, unscrupulous, fraudulent, knavish, disgraceful, wicked, false-hearted, disingenuous, unfair, one-sided, double, double- hearted, double-tongued, double-faced, timeserving, crooked, tortuous, insidious, Machiavelian, dark, slippery, fishy, perfidious, treacherous, perjured, infamous, arrant, foul, base, vile, ignominious, blackguard, contemptible, unrespectable, abject, mean, shabby, little, paltry, dirty, scurvy, scabby, sneaking, groveling, scrubby, rascally, pettifogging, beneath one, low-minded, low-thoughted, base-minded, undignified, indign, unbecoming, unbeseeming, unbefitting, derogatory, degrading, infra dignitatem, beneath one's dignity, ungentlemanly, ungentlemanlike, unknightly, unchivalric, unmanly, unhandsome, recreant, inglorious, corrupt, venal, debased, mongrel, faithless, of bad faith, false, unfaithful, disloyal, untrustworthy, trustless, trothless, lost to shame, dead to honor, barratrous, dishonestly, mala fide, like a thief in the night, by crooked paths, Int, O tempora!, O mores!, corruptissima respublica plurimae leges.

Vice

N vice, evil-doing, evil courses, wrongdoing, wickedness, viciousness, iniquity, peccability, demerit, sin, Adam, old Adam, offending Adam, immorality, impropriety, indecorum, scandal, laxity, looseness of morals, enphagy, dophagy, exophagy, want of principle, want of ballast, obliquity, backsliding, infamy, demoralization, pravity, depravity, pollution, hardness of heart, brutality, corruption, knavery, profligacy, flagrancy, atrocity, cannibalism, lesbianism, Sadism, infirmity, weakness, weakness of the flesh, frailty, imperfection, error, weak side, foible, failing, failure, crying sin, besetting sin, defect, deficiency, cloven foot, lowest dregs of vice, sink of iniquity, Alsatian den, gusto picaresco, fault, crime, criminality, sinner, brothel, gambling house, joint, opium den, shooting gallery, crack house, vicious, sinful, sinning, wicked, iniquitous, immoral, unrighteous, wrong, criminal, naughty, incorrect, unduteous, undutiful, unprincipled, lawless, disorderly, contra bonos mores, indecorous, unseemly, improper, dissolute, profligate, scampish, unworthy, worthless, desertless, disgraceful, recreant, reprehensible, blameworthy, uncommendable, discreditable, disreputable, Sadistic, base, sinister, scurvy, foul, gross, vile, black, grave, facinorous, felonious, nefarious, shameful, scandalous, infamous, villainous, of a deep dye, heinous, flagrant, flagitious, atrocious, incarnate, accursed, Mephistophelian, satanic, diabolic, hellish, infernal, stygian, fiendlike, hell-born, demoniacal, devilish, fiendish, miscreated, misbegotten, demoralized, corrupt, depraved, evil-minded, evil-disposed, ill-conditioned, malevolent, heartless, graceless, shameless, virtueless, abandoned, lost to virtue, unconscionable, sunk in iniquity, lost in iniquity, steeped in iniquity, incorrigible, irreclaimable, obdurate, reprobate, past praying for, culpable, reprehensible, unjustifiable, indefensible, inexcusable, inexpiable, unpardonable, irremissible, weak, frail, lax, infirm, imperfect, indiscrete, demoralizing, degrading, wrong, sinfully, without excuse, Int, O tempora!, O mores!, alitur vitium vivitque tegendo, genus est mortis male vivere, mala mens malus animus, nemo repente fuit turpissimus, the trail of the serpent is over them all, to sanction vice and hunt decorum down.