vicious
(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.
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.
Origin of vicious
1Other words for vicious
Opposites for vicious
Other words from vicious
- vi·cious·ly, adverb
- vi·cious·ness, noun
- un·vi·cious, adjective
- un·vi·cious·ly, adverb
- un·vi·cious·ness, noun
Words that may be confused with vicious
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use vicious in a sentence
In its subliminal, pulsing ambiguity, the ending seems to carry the key to the whole book — this vicious, knife-sharp book — but it’s so hard to figure out just what that key is.
The mind-boggling end of Susan Choi’s Trust Exercise, explained | Constance Grady | November 20, 2020 | VoxWe’re in a vicious cycle with appliances, and it’s partly because there aren’t enough people with the knowledge to repair them.
Nana nabs $6M for an online academy and marketplace dedicated to appliance repair | Ingrid Lunden | November 12, 2020 | TechCrunchUntil then, our businesses continue to be trapped in a vicious cycle – providing benefits to Google’s competing services while rendering our own services obsolete in the long run.
Act now before Google kills us, 135-strong coalition of startups warns EU antitrust chief | Natasha Lomas | November 12, 2020 | TechCrunchWe have it in our power to begin to turn this vicious cycle — and it is a vicious cycle — into something more virtuous.
Election reveals deeper divides between red and blue America | Philip Rucker, Robert Costa | November 5, 2020 | Washington Post“I got caught up in the gig economy’s nonsense, and I got caught in a vicious cycle,” said Copridge, who begins every week $260 underwater because he rents a Chevrolet Bolt for work.
California voters sided with Uber, denying drivers benefits by classifying them as contractors | Faiz Siddiqui, Nitasha Tiku | November 4, 2020 | Washington Post
The best that can be said for these budding radicals is that at least they sincerely hate the thing they so viciously attack.
Of gays being persecuted viciously in countries like Russia and Iran?
“They treated me like an alien,” she says, explaining that North Koreans are viciously stereotyped in South Korea.
How ‘Titanic ’Helped This Brave Young Woman Escape North Korea’s Totalitarian State | Lizzie Crocker | October 31, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIn 2004, two Sikh men were viciously beaten by young white assailants while walking on the sidewalk.
Nor is it where the gunman then viciously pistol whips his victim repeatedly for having the temerity not to die.
Bronx Gunman Shot His Friend, Didn’t Spill His Drink | Michael Daly | August 5, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThe needle of the archdruidress broke, as she shook her head viciously at the scoffer.
The Pit Town Coronet, Volume I (of 3) | Charles James WillsThe Arab pricked his ears, swished his long and arched tail viciously, and showed the whites of his eyes.
The Red Year | Louis Tracy"I wonder if she has ever tried to condense rudeness into an epigram," said Isabel viciously, pausing in her narrative.
Ancestors | Gertrude Atherton"So ye'll just be by yoursel' the morn, unless they put Dicky Tamson owre aside you," he added viciously.
The Underworld | James C. WelshWith the coming up of Colonel Field the Indians immediately gave ground, then charged most viciously as our men pursued.
A Virginia Scout | Hugh Pendexter
British Dictionary definitions for vicious
/ (ˈvɪʃəs) /
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
Origin of vicious
1Derived forms of vicious
- viciously, adverb
- viciousness, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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