viperous

American  

[vahy-per-uhs] / ˈvaɪ pər əs /

adjective

1. of the nature of or resembling a viper.

   a viperous movement.

2. of or relating to vipers.

3. characteristic of vipers.

4. venomous.

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viperous British  

/ ˈvaɪpərəs /

adjective

1. Also: viperine.  of, relating to, or resembling a viper

2. malicious

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Other Word Forms

• pseudoviperous adjective
• pseudoviperously adverb
• viperously adverb

Etymology

Origin of viperous

First recorded in 1525–35; viper + -ous

Example Sentences

Otherwise, the script prunes the couple’s legal battle down to one scene with Ivy’s viperous lawyer, played by Allison Janney, who brings a rottweiler to the showdown and claims it’s her service animal.

From Los Angeles Times

As Agnes, Katigbak delivers a measured prattle, her negging neither as viperous nor as offhand as Albee’s text gives the character license to be.

From New York Times

Artists foreign and domestic have been depicting the war here head-on since the origins of the fighting actually began eight years ago — in the Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa’s viperous satire “Donbass,” in Serhiy Zhadan’s raw novel “The Orphanage,” or in the Polish photographer Wiktoria Wojciechowska’s profound, prize-drenched war series “Sparks.”

From New York Times

As compensation, we might get the deliciously viperous instead, just for the engaging fun of it, but there too the current roster is not delivering.

From New York Times

I was particularly disappointed by Tatiana Maslany, as the viperous young exec Diana Christensen, who would sell her soul for ratings if only she had one to begin with.

From The New Yorker