adjective
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characterized by malice
-
motivated by wrongful, vicious, or mischievous purposes
Other Word Forms
- maliciously adverb
- maliciousness noun
- nonmalicious adjective
- nonmaliciously adverb
- semimalicious adjective
- semimaliciously adverb
- unmalicious adjective
- unmaliciously adverb
Etymology
Origin of malicious
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English malicius, from Old French, from Latin malitiōsus; malice, -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.
"I'm absolutely baffled by the whole thing - I've still had no contact whatsoever from the Bangladeshi authorities despite them spreading malicious allegations about me for a year-and-a-half now," she said.
From BBC
"The malicious and malign intent is really sinister," the officer said.
From BBC
They also warned that the measure risks spiking eel prices and leading to "increased malicious poaching and smuggling".
From Barron's
By presenting malicious tasks as routine security work, they manipulated Claude into executing attack components without recognizing the broader hostile context.
The Miss Universe Organisation condemned Mr Nawat's behaviour as "malicious" and Mr Rocha, speaking by video from Mexico, told his Thai business partner to just "stop".
From BBC
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.
