revengeful

American  

[ri-venj-fuhl] / rɪˈvɛndʒ fəl /

adjective

1. determined to have revenge; vindictive.

   Synonyms:

   malignant, malicious, malevolent

   Antonyms:

   forgiving

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revengeful British  

/ rɪˈvɛndʒfʊl /

adjective

1. full of or characterized by desire for vengeance; vindictive

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Usage

What does revengeful mean? Revengeful is used to describe someone who is determined to get revenge—retaliation against or punishment of someone for some kind of harm that they caused or wrongdoing that they did (whether real or perceived). Revengeful also means inclined to seek revenge. The adjective vindictive is a close synonym. A more commonly used synonym is vengeful. Revengeful can be used to describe people or their actions. Revenge often involves an attempt to get even by inflicting similar harm to the person who initially harmed the person seeking revenge. Revenge has several other synonyms that each have different shades of meaning, including retribution, retaliation, and reprisal. But more than these words, revenge implies that such retaliation is personal and motivated by a deep anger and perhaps an obsessive desire to get even. This is usually what it means when someone is described as revengeful. Example: Being revengeful does more damage to you than to the person you are intent on destroying.

Related Words

See spiteful.

Other Word Forms

• revengefully
  adverb
• revengefulness
  noun
• unrevengeful
  adjective
• unrevengefully
  adverb
• unrevengefulness
  noun

Etymology

Origin of revengeful

First recorded in 1580–90; revenge + -ful

Example Sentences

Revengeful and cruel, dauntless and bold, as he had ever been, the present seemed a crisis in his life.

From Hatchie, the Guardian Slave; or, The Heiress of Bellevue by Ashton, Warren T.

"Revengeful creature," she sobbed, clinging to the post.

From Old Ebenezer by Read, Opie Percival

They relent not; They pardon not; they are implacable, Revengeful, unforgiving!

From The Complete Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow by Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

Can a man of great worth, and that deserves well, be Vain, Proud, Revengeful, Ungrateful to his Friend, False to his Master, and impertinently Ambitious in his very Retreat from all Publick Affairs?

From Reflections upon Two Pamphlets Lately Published One called, A Letter from Monsieur de Cros, concerning the Memoirs of Christendom, And the Other, An Answer to that Letter. by Anonymous

Thou Sun! whose lustre all things here below Surveys; and Juno! conscious of my woe; Revengeful Furies! and Queen Hecate!

From Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham by Denham, John, Sir