vicious

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: vi=cious

CIDE DICTIONARY

vicious, a. [OF. vicious, F. vicieux, fr. L. vitiosus, fr. vitium vice. See Vice a fault.].

•  Characterized by vice or defects; defective; faulty; imperfect.  [1913 Webster]

  "Though I perchance am vicious in my guess."  [1913 Webster]

  "The title of these lords was vicious in its origin."  [1913 Webster]

  "A charge against Bentley of vicious reasoning."  [1913 Webster]
•  Addicted to vice; corrupt in principles or conduct; depraved; wicked; as, vicious children; vicious examples; vicious conduct.  [1913 Webster]

  "Who . . . heard this heavy curse,
  Servant of servants, on his vicious race."  [1913 Webster]
•  Wanting purity; foul; bad; noxious; as, vicious air, water, etc.  Dryden.  [1913 Webster]
•  Not correct or pure; corrupt; as, vicious language; vicious idioms.  [1913 Webster]
•  Not well tamed or broken; given to bad tricks; unruly; refractory; as, a vicious horse.  [1913 Webster]
•  Bitter; spiteful; malignant.  [1913 Webster]

Syn. -- Corrupt; faulty; wicked; depraved.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

vicious, adj.
1 bad-tempered, spiteful (a vicious dog; vicious remarks).
2 violent, severe (a vicious attack).
3 of the nature of or addicted to vice.
4 (of language or reasoning etc.) faulty or unsound.

Idiom

vicious circle see CIRCLE n. 11. vicious spiral continual harmful interaction of causes and effects, esp. as causing repeated rises in both prices and wages.

Derivative

viciously adv. viciousness n.

Etymology

ME f. OF vicious or L vitiosus f. vitium VICE(1)

THESAURUS

vicious

Draconian, Tartarean, abominable, acrimonious, amoral, animal, anthropophagous, arrant, atrocious, bad, baleful, baneful, barbaric, barbarous, base, beastly, bestial, bitchy, bitter, black, blamable, blameworthy, bloodthirsty, bloody, bloody-minded, brutal, brutalized, brute, brutish, cannibalistic, concentrated, contaminated, corroding, corrosive, corrupt, corrupting, corruptive, counterproductive, criminal, cruel, cruel-hearted, damaging, damnable, dark, deadly, defamatory, degenerate, degraded, degrading, deleterious, demoniac, demoniacal, depraved, desperate, despiteful, detrimental, devilish, diabolic, diabolical, disadvantageous, disgraceful, disserviceable, distressing, evil, execrable, exquisite, faulty, fearful, fell, feral, ferine, ferocious, fiendish, fiendlike, fierce, flagitious, flagrant, foul, furious, harmful, hateful, heinous, hellish, hurtful, ill, immoral, improper, inaccurate, inauspicious, inexpedient, infamous, inferior, infernal, inhuman, inhumane, iniquitous, injurious, invalid, kill-crazy, knavish, lethal, low, malefic, malevolent, malicious, malign, malignant, mean, merciless, mischievous, miscreant, monstrous, murderous, nasty, naughty, nefarious, noisome, noncivilized, nonmoral, noxious, obnoxious, odious, ominous, opprobrious, peccant, pernicious, perverse, perverted, pitiless, poisonous, poor, prejudicial, profligate, putrid, rancorous, rank, ravening, reprehensible, reprobate, rotten, ruthless, sadistic, sanguinary, sanguineous, satanic, savage, scandalous, scatheful, septic, severe, shameful, shameless, sharkish, sinful, sinister, slanderous, slavering, spiteful, steeped in vice, subhuman, tameless, terrible, toxic, truculent, unchristian, uncivilized, unfavorable, unforgivable, ungentle, unhealthy, unhuman, unkind, unmoral, unpardonable, unpleasant, unprincipled, unskillful, unsound, unspeakable, untamed, untoward, unworthy, vehement, venal, venenate, veneniferous, venenous, venomous, vice-laden, vice-prone, vile, villainous, vindictive, violent, virulent, wicked, wild, wolfish, wrong

ROGET THESAURUS

vicious

Disapprobation

N disapprobation, disapproval, improbation, disesteem, disvaluation, displacency, odium, dislike, dispraise, discommendation, blame, censure, obloquy, detraction, disparagement, depreciation, denunciation, condemnation, ostracism, black list, animadversion, reflection, stricture, objection, exception, criticism, sardonic grin, sardonic laugh, sarcasm, insinuation, innuendo, bad compliment, poor compliment, left-handed compliment, satire, sneer, taunt, cavil, carping, censoriousness, hypercriticism, reprehension, remonstrance, expostulation, reproof, reprobation, admonition, increpation, reproach, rebuke, reprimand, castigation, jobation, lecture, curtain lecture, blow up, wigging, dressing, rating, scolding, trimming, correction, set down, rap on the knuckles, coup de bec, rebuff, slap, slap on the face, home thrust, hit, frown, scowl, black look, diatribe, jeremiad, jeremiade, tirade, philippic, clamor, outcry, hue and cry, hiss, hissing, sibilance, sibilation, catcall, execration, chiding, upbraiding, exprobation, abuse, vituperation, invective, objurgation, contumely, hard words, cutting words, bitter words, evil-speaking, bad language, personality, disapproving, scandalized, disparaging, condemnatory, damnatory, denunciatory, reproachful, abusive, objurgatory, clamorous, vituperative, defamatory, satirical, sarcastic, sardonic, cynical, dry, sharp, cutting, biting, severe, withering, trenchant, hard upon, censorious, critical, captious, carping, hypercritical, fastidious, sparing of praise, grudging praise, disapproved, chid, in bad odor, blown upon, unapproved, unblest, at a discount, exploded, weighed in the balance and found wanting, blameworthy, reprehensible, to blame, worthy of blame, answerable, uncommendable, exceptionable, not to be thought of, bad, vicious, unlamented, unbewailed, unpitied, with a wry face, reproachfully, Int, it is too bad!, it won't do, it will never do!, marry come up!, Oh!, come!, 'sdeath!, forbid it Heaven!, God forbid, Heaven forbid!, out upon, fie upon it!, away with!, tut!, O tempora!, O mores!, shame!, fie, fie for shame!, out on you!, tell it not in Gath!.

Accusation

N accusation, charge, imputation, slur, inculpation, exprobration, delation, crimination, incrimination, accrimination, recrimination, tu quoque argument, invective, denunciation, denouncement, libel, challenge, citation, arraignment, impeachment, appeachment, indictment, bill of indictment, true bill, lawsuit, condemnation, gravamen of a charge, head and front of one's offending, argumentum ad hominem, scandal, scandalum magnatum, accuser, prosecutor, plaintiff, relator, informer, appellant, accused, defendant, prisoner, perpetrator, panel, respondent, litigant, accusing, accusatory, accusative, imputative, denunciatory, recriminatory, criminatory, accused, suspected, under suspicion, under a cloud, under surveillance, in custody, in detention, in the lockup, in the watch house, in the house of detention, accusable, imputable, indefensible, inexcusable, unpardonable, unjustifiable, vicious, Int, look at home, tu quoque, the breath of accusation kills an innocent name, thou can'st not say I did it.

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.