infernal

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: in=fer=nal

CIDE DICTIONARY

infernal, a. [F. infernal, L. infernalis, fr. infernus that which lies beneath, the lower. See Inferior.].

•  Of or pertaining to or suitable for the lower regions, inhabited, according to the ancients, by the dead; pertaining to Pluto's realm of the dead, the Tartarus of the ancients.  [1913 Webster]

  "The Elysian fields, the infernal monarchy."  [1913 Webster]
•  Of or pertaining to, resembling, or inhabiting, hell; suitable for hell, or to the character of the inhabitants of hell; hellish; diabolical; as, infernal spirits, or conduct.  [1913 Webster]

  "The instruments or abettors in such infernal dealings."  [1913 Webster]

Infernal machine, a machine or apparatus maliciously designed to explode, and destroy life or property. -- Infernal stone (lapis infernalis), lunar caustic; formerly so called. The name was also applied to caustic potash.

Syn. -- Tartarean; Stygian; hellish; devilish; diabolical; satanic; fiendish; malicious.

infernal, n. 

 An inhabitant of the infernal regions; also, the place itself.  Drayton.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

infernal, adj.
1 a of hell or the underworld. b hellish, fiendish.
2 colloq. detestable, tiresome.

Derivative

infernally adv.

Etymology

ME f. OF f. LL infernalis f. L infernus situated below

THESAURUS

infernal

Acherontic, Draconian, Hadean, Lethean, Mephistophelian, Plutonian, Plutonic, Stygian, Tartarean, absolute, animal, anthropophagous, atrocious, barbaric, barbarous, beastly, bestial, blamed, blasted, blessed, bloodthirsty, bloody, bloody-minded, brutal, brutalized, brute, brutish, cannibalistic, chthonian, chthonic, cimmerian, confounded, cruel, cruel-hearted, cursed, cussed, damnable, damned, demoniac, demoniacal, demonic, demonical, devilish, diabolic, diabolical, dire, downright, dreadful, evil, execrable, fell, feral, ferocious, fiendish, fiendlike, fierce, flagitious, ghoulish, heinous, hellborn, hellish, inhuman, inhumane, iniquitous, maleficent, malevolent, malicious, murderous, nether, out-and-out, outright, pandemoniac, pandemonic, plutonian, plutonic, purgatorial, ruthless, sadistic, sanguinary, sanguineous, satanic, savage, sharkish, sinister, slavering, straight-out, stygian, subhuman, sulfurous, thoroughgoing, truculent, unchristian, uncivilized, underworld, ungodly, unhuman, vicious, villainous, wicked, wolfish

ROGET THESAURUS

infernal

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.

Satan

N satan, the Devil, Lucifer, Mephistopheles, Ahriman, Belial, Samael, Zamiel, Beelzebub, the Prince of the Devils, the tempter, the evil one, the evil spirit, the Adversary, the archenemy, the author of evil, the wicked one, the old Serpent, the Prince of darkness, the Prince of this world, the Prince of the power of the air, the foul fiend, the arch fiend, the devil incarnate, the common enemy, the angel of the bottomless pit, Abaddon, Apollyon, fallen angels, unclean spirits, devils, the rulers, the powers of darkness, inhabitants of Pandemonium, demon, diabolism, devilism, devilship, diabolology, satanism, devil worship, manicheism, the cloven foot, satanic, diabolic, devilish, infernal, hellborn, Mythological and other fabulous Deities and Powers.

Hell

N hell, bottomless pit, place of torment, habitation of fallen angels, Pandemonium, Abaddon, Domdaniel, jahannan, sheol, hell fire, everlasting fire, everlasting torment, eternal damnation, lake of fire and brimstone, fire that is never quenched, worm that never dies, purgatory, limbo, gehenna, abyss, Tartarus, Hades, Avernus, Styx, Stygian creek, pit of Acheron, Cocytus, infernal regions, inferno, shades below, realms of Pluto, Pluto, Rhadamanthus, Erebus, Tophet, hellish, infernal, stygian, dies irae dies illa, the hue of dungeons and the scowl of night.

Malevolence

N malevolence, bad intent, bad intention, unkindness, diskindness, ill nature, ill will, ill blood, bad blood, enmity, hate, malignity, malice, malice prepense, maliciousness, spite, despite, resentment, uncharitableness, incompassionateness, gall, venom, rancor, rankling, virulence, mordacity, acerbity churlishness, hardness of heart, heart of stone, obduracy, cruelty, cruelness, brutality, savagery, ferity, ferocity, barbarity, inhumanity, immanity, truculence, ruffianism, evil eye, cloven foot, torture, vivisection, ill turn, bad turn, affront, outrage, atrocity, ill usage, intolerance, persecution, tender mercies, unkindest cut of all, malevolent, unbenevolent, unbenign, ill-disposed, ill-intentioned, ill-natured, ill-conditioned, ill-contrived, evil-minded, evil- disposed, black-browed, malicious, malign, malignant, rancorous, despiteful, spiteful, mordacious, caustic, bitter, envenomed, acrimonious, virulent, unamiable, uncharitable, maleficent, venomous, grinding, galling, harsh, disobliging, unkind, unfriendly, ungracious, inofficious, invidious, uncandid, churlish, surly, sullen, cold, cold-blooded, cold-hearted, black-hearted, hard-hearted, flint-hearted, marble-hearted, stony-hearted, hard of heart, unnatural, ruthless, relentless, cruel, brutal, brutish, savage, savage as a bear, savage as a tiger, ferine, ferocious, inhuman, barbarous, barbaric, semibarbaric, fell, untamed, tameless, truculent, incendiary, bloodthirsty, atrocious, bloodyminded, fiendish, fiendlike, demoniacal, diabolic, diabolical, devilish, infernal, hellish, Satanic, Tartaran, malevolently, with bad intent, cruel as death, hard unkindness' alter'd eye, homo homini lupus, mala mens, malus animus, rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind, sharp-tooth'd unkindness.

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.