adjective
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characterized by malice
-
motivated by wrongful, vicious, or mischievous purposes
Other Word Forms
- maliciously adverb
- maliciousness noun
- nonmalicious adjective
- nonmaliciously adverb
- semimalicious adjective
- semimaliciously adverb
- unmalicious adjective
- unmaliciously adverb
Etymology
Origin of malicious
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English malicius, from Old French, from Latin malitiōsus; malice, -ous
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Two days before his retirement last year, Mr Rose was served gross misconduct papers by the force, the timing of which he described as "malicious".
From BBC
Having never signed up for this sad charade, malicious compliance is one of the few weapons she has.
From Salon
But when it was less clear that a link was malicious, PC users were more likely than the phone users to click on it.
"I remain deeply upset with the malicious comparison to serial killers and feel humiliated given that millions of people will have seen this comparison," she said.
From BBC
"This deception exposes users to scams, including impersonation frauds, as well as other forms of manipulation by malicious actors," it said.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
