evil definition | Dictionary.com

Synonyms

Nearby Entries

evil - 8 dictionary results

e⋅vil

[ee-vuh

Use evil in a Sentence

–adjective

1.	morally wrong or bad; immoral; wicked: evil deeds; an evil life.

2.	harmful; injurious: evil laws.

3.	characterized or accompanied by misfortune or suffering; unfortunate; disastrous: to be fallen on evil days.

4.	due to actual or imputed bad conduct or character: an evil reputation.

5.	marked by anger, irritability, irascibility, etc.: He is known for his evil disposition.

–noun

6.	that which is evil; evil quality, intention, or conduct: to choose the lesser of two evils.

7.	the force in nature that governs and gives rise to wickedness and sin.

8.	the wicked or immoral part of someone or something: The evil in his nature has destroyed the good.

9.	harm; mischief; misfortune: to wish one evil.

10.	anything causing injury or harm: Tobacco is considered by some to be an evil.

11.	a harmful aspect, effect, or consequence: the evils of alcohol.

12.	a disease, as king's evil.

–adverb

13.	in an evil manner; badly; ill: It went evil with him.

—Idiom

14.	the evil one, the devil; Satan.

Origin:
bef. 900; ME evel, evil, OE yfel; c. Goth ubils, OHG ubil, G übel, OFris, MD evel

Related forms:

e⋅vil⋅ly, adverb

e⋅vil⋅ness, noun

Synonyms:
1. sinful, iniquitous, depraved, vicious, corrupt, base, vile, nefarious. See bad ¹ . 2. pernicious, destructive. 6. wickedness, depravity, iniquity, unrighteousness, corruption, baseness. 9. disaster, calamity, woe, misery, suffering, sorrow.

Antonyms:
1. righteous.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source

Link To evil

e·vil (ē'vəl)

adj. e·vil·er, e·vil·est

Morally bad or wrong; wicked: an evil tyrant.
Causing ruin, injury, or pain; harmful: the evil effects of a poor diet.
Characterized by or indicating future misfortune; ominous: evil omens.
Bad or blameworthy by report; infamous: an evil reputation.
Characterized by anger or spite; malicious: an evil temper.

The quality of being morally bad or wrong; wickedness.
That which causes harm, misfortune, or destruction: a leader's power to do both good and evil.
An evil force, power, or personification.
Something that is a cause or source of suffering, injury, or destruction: the social evils of poverty and injustice.

adv. Archaic
In an evil manner.

[Middle English, from Old English yfel; see wap- in Indo-European roots.]
e'vil·ly adv., e'vil·ness n.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source

Evil

E*vil\a. [OE. evel, evil, ifel, uvel, AS. yfel; akin to OFries, evel, D. euvel, OS. & OHG. ubil, G. ["u]bel, Goth. ubils, and perh. to E. over.]

1. Having qualities tending to injury and mischief; having a nature or properties which tend to badness; mischievous; not good; worthless or deleterious; poor; as, an evil beast; and evil plant; an evil crop.

A good tree can not bring forth evil fruit. --Matt. vii. 18.

2. Having or exhibiting bad moral qualities; morally corrupt; wicked; wrong; vicious; as, evil conduct, thoughts, heart, words, and the like.

Ah, what a sign it is of evil life, When death's approach is seen so terrible. --Shak.

3. Producing or threatening sorrow, distress, injury, or calamity; unpropitious; calamitous; as, evil tidings; evil arrows; evil days.

Because he hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel. --Deut. xxii. 19.

The owl shrieked at thy birth -- an evil sign. --Shak.

Evil news rides post, while good news baits. --Milton.

Evil eye, an eye which inflicts injury by some magical or fascinating influence. It is still believed by the ignorant and superstitious that some persons have the supernatural power of injuring by a look.

It almost led him to believe in the evil eye. --J. H. Newman.

Evil speaking, speaking ill of others; calumny; censoriousness.

The evil one, the Devil; Satan.

Note: Evil is sometimes written as the first part of a compound (with or without a hyphen). In many cases the compounding need not be insisted on. Examples: Evil doer or evildoer, evil speaking or evil-speaking, evil worker, evil wishing, evil-hearted, evil-minded.

Syn: Mischieveous; pernicious; injurious; hurtful; destructive; wicked; sinful; bad; corrupt; perverse; wrong; vicious; calamitous.

Evil

E"vil\ ([=e]"v'l) n. 1. Anything which impairs the happiness of a being or deprives a being of any good; anything which causes suffering of any kind to sentient beings; injury; mischief; harm; -- opposed to good.

Evils which our own misdeeds have wrought. --Milton.

The evil that men do lives after them. --Shak.

2. Moral badness, or the deviation of a moral being from the principles of virtue imposed by conscience, or by the will of the Supreme Being, or by the principles of a lawful human authority; disposition to do wrong; moral offence; wickedness; depravity.

The heart of the sons of men is full of evil. --Eccl. ix. 3.

3. malady or disease; especially in the phrase king's evil, the scrofula. [R.] --Shak.

He [Edward the Confessor] was the first that touched for the evil. --Addison.

Evil

E"vil\, adv. In an evil manner; not well; ill; badly; unhappily; injuriously; unkindly. --Shak.

It went evil with his house. --1 Chron. vii. 23.

The Egyptians evil entreated us, and affected us. --Deut. xxvi. 6.

Language Translation for : evil

Spanish: malo, malvado,

German: böse,

Japanese: 邪悪な

More Translations »

evil

adj. As used by hackers, implies that some system, program, person, or institution is sufficiently maldesigned as to be not worth the bother of dealing with. Unlike the adjectives in the cretinous/losing/brain-damaged series, `evil' does not imply incompetence or bad design, but rather a set of goals or design criteria fatally incompatible with the speaker's. This usage is more an esthetic and engineering judgment than a moral one in the mainstream sense. "We thought about adding a Blue Glue interface but decided it was too evil to deal with." "TECO is neat, but it can be pretty evil if you're prone to typos." Often pronounced with the first syllable lengthened, as /eeee'vil/. Compare evil and rude.

Jargon File 4.2.0
Cite This Source

evil

O.E. yfel (Kentish evel) "bad, vicious," from P.Gmc. *ubilaz (cf. O.Saxon ubil, Goth. ubils), from PIE *upelo-, giving the word an original sense of "uppity, overreaching bounds" which slowly worsened. "In OE., as in all the other early Teut. langs., exc. Scandinavian, this word is the most comprehensive adjectival expression of disapproval, dislike or disparagement" [OED]. Evil was the word the Anglo-Saxons used where we would use bad, cruel, unskillful, defective (adj.), or harm, crime, misfortune, disease. The meaning "extreme moral wickedness" was in O.E., but did not become the main sense until 18c. Evil eye (L. oculus malus) was O.E. eage yfel.

evil
As used by a hacker, implies that some system, program, person, or institution is sufficiently maldesigned as to be not worth the bother of dealing with. Unlike the adjectives in the cretinous, losing, brain-damaged series, "evil" does not imply incompetence or bad design, but rather a set of goals or design criteria fatally incompatible with the speaker's. This usage is more an aesthetic and engineering judgment than a moral one in the mainstream sense. "We thought about adding a Blue Glue interface but decided it was too evil to deal with." "TECO is neat, but it can be pretty evil if you're prone to typos." Often pronounced with the first syllable lengthened, as /eeee'vil/.
Compare evil and rude.
[The Jargon File]
(1994-12-12)

Search another word or see evil on Thesaurus | Reference

About · Privacy Policy · Terms of Use · Advertise with Us · Link to Us · NASCAR® · Contact Us