vicious
Americanadjective
-
vicious gossip;
a vicious attack.
- Synonyms:
- malevolent
-
They all feared his vicious temper.
-
(of an animal) having bad habits or a cruel or fierce disposition.
a vicious bull.
-
unpleasantly severe.
a vicious headache.
-
addicted to or characterized by vice; grossly immoral; depraved; profligate.
a vicious life.
- Synonyms:
- sinful, iniquitous, corrupt, abandoned
- Antonyms:
- moral
-
given or readily disposed to evil.
a vicious criminal.
-
reprehensible; blameworthy; wrong.
a vicious deception.
-
characterized or marred by faults or defects; faulty; unsound.
vicious reasoning.
-
Archaic. morbid, foul, or noxious.
adjective
-
wicked or cruel; villainous
a vicious thug
-
characterized by violence or ferocity
a vicious blow
-
informal unpleasantly severe; harsh
a vicious wind
-
characterized by malice
vicious lies
-
(esp of dogs, horses, etc) ferocious or hostile; dangerous
-
characterized by or leading to vice
-
invalidated by defects; unsound
a vicious inference
-
obsolete noxious or morbid
a vicious exhalation
Other Word Forms
- unvicious adjective
- unviciously adverb
- unviciousness noun
- viciously adverb
- viciousness noun
Etymology
Origin of vicious
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English or directly from Anglo-French, from Latin vitiōsus, equivalent to viti(um) “fault, defect, vice” ( vice 1 ) + -ōsus -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.
My legs were shaking because those trees and I hadn’t chatted in quite a while, and I wasn’t sure how angry and maybe vicious they were going to be.
From Literature
As soon as they left the tree cover, they were hit by a vicious blast of wind.
From Literature
Then, when a wildfire comes through and natives begin to regrow, they’re chomped back down, creating a vicious cycle.
From Los Angeles Times
“The EU may be trapped in a vicious circle,” the ECA said.
Every few centuries, some charlatan, some crawling, vicious soul, would try to get close to the Glimourie Tree—to steal it, to take it for their own.
From Literature
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.
