malign
Americanverb (used with object)
-
maligns,
present (3rd person singular)
-
maligned,
past participle, past
-
maligning
present participle
adjective
-
evil in effect; pernicious; baleful; injurious.
The gloomy house had a malign influence upon her usually good mood.
- Synonyms:
- baneful
-
having or showing an evil disposition; malevolent; malicious.
adjective
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
malignsimple
-
malignssimple
-
have malignedperfect
-
has malignedperfect
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am maligningprogressive
-
are maligningprogressive
-
is maligningprogressive
-
have been maligningperfect progressive
-
has been maligningperfect progressive
Past
-
malignedsimple
-
had malignedperfect
-
was maligningprogressive
-
were maligningprogressive
-
had been maligningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of malign
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English maligne, from Middle French, from Latin malignus; see mal-, benign
Explanation
If you malign someone, you badmouth them — just like the jilted girlfriend who tells the whole school her ex has bad breath and head lice. When you habitually malign people, you risk being described as "a malign influence" — in this case, malign is an adjective that describes a harmful or even evil person or thing. Whichever way you use the word, its connection to wickedness can be found in its Latin root, malignus, "wicked or bad-natured," which combines male, or "badly" and -gnus, "born."
Vocabulary lists containing malign
Tier 2 Words for the SBAC ELA Items
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"The Monkey's Paw" by W. W. Jacobs
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Unit 1: Telling Details
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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.
See Examples For:
It added that the use of robots made outside the US could allow "malign actors to surveil Americans, enhance the capabilities of foreign intelligence services, or to remotely commandeer the robots."
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
The rumor among her people is that Mary has been cursed with this malign power.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026
Yet that’s also how Malone feels about the current climate of Hollywood — a once-stable neighborhood fending off malign forces.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 8, 2026
Schumer in his statement, noted that “Iran’s malign regional activities, nuclear ambitions, and harsh oppression of the Iranian people demands American strength, resolve, regional coordination, and strategic clarity.”
From Slate ● Mar. 4, 2026
Can it be that there is a malign influence of the sun at periods which affects certain natures—as at times the moon does others?
From "Dracula" by Bram Stoker
Much like the recent reclaiming of the bimbo as empowering and gossip as an act of feminist resistance, her L.A. hot girl TikToks remove guilt from the pleasure of feminine hobbies that patriarchy maligns.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2023
If a media organization knowingly and falsely maligns a public figure, the fact that it reported nice and true things elsewhere is no defense.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 10, 2023
But the movement has been getting pushback from some Hindu Americans who argue that such legislation maligns a specific community.
From Washington Times ● Feb. 21, 2023
The girls' family has also questioned the police's version, saying it maligns their daughters.
From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2022
Self-convicted of malice, he has not the slightest suspicion of his ignorance; whereas he knows nothing of these masters whom he maligns.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXVI. October, 1843. Vol. LIV. by Various
For nearly 40 years as an attorney, he used that presence to fight for the maligned like few others.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026
The author likens Grietje to the women of Salem and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Hester Prynne, describing her as one of early America’s “unfairly and heinously maligned women.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 19, 2026
Striker Youssef Chermiti has improved, along with other previously maligned figures such as Emmanuel Fernandez and Nasser Djiga.
From BBC ● May 9, 2026
Once maligned for taking on debt to fuel costly media acquisitions, AT&T has since sold off those units and refocused on core telecommunications activities.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 7, 2026
My mother took note of anyone who maligned any characteristic of her husband or anything associated with him.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
I am in no way maligning Tracey’s question, though.
From Slate ● Dec. 28, 2024
Discovery, current owners of CNN, and Variety said Zucker complained that Licht was unfairly maligning him in the press.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 28, 2023
The 50-year-old journalist was living in Kenya to avoid arrest at home on charges of maligning the powerful military.
From Washington Times ● May 25, 2023
InfoWars founder and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones continued his maligning of presiding Travis County, Texas District Court Judge Maya Guerra Gamble on Wednesday night not long after his defamation trial adjourned.
From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2022
"Atavism," I ventured; and he regarded me narrowly, as though I might be maligning his character in some way.
From The River and I by John G. Neihardt
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.
