See Also: vicious(dictionary)
vicious(dictionary)
vicious cicatrix(medicine)
vicious circle(medicine)
vicious union(medicine)
vicious circle(dictionary)

vicious (iou)



vicious adjective & noun. Also (arch.) vitious. ME.
[Old French (mod. vicieux) from Latin vitiosus, from vitium VICE noun1: see -IOUS.]
A. adjective.
Of, pertaining to, or characterized by vice or immorality; depraved, immoral; profligate. ME.
Burke His practical and speculative morals were vitious in the extreme. G. Greene The most vicious men have sometimes narrowly evaded sanctity.
Morally or practically condemnable; reprehensible, blameworthy. LME.
Law. Not satisfying legal requirements; legally flawed or invalid. Now rare or obsolete. LME.
gen. Impaired or weakened by a defect; faulty, unsound; (of language etc.) corrupt, debased. LME.
Times Literary Supplement It would make for vicious illation, proving Brown's 'detached perspective' a cloak for myopia.
b. Of a person: wrong, mistaken. rare (Shakes.). Only in E17.
Shakespeare Othello Though I perchance am vicious in my guess.
Noxious, harmful to health; foul. Long rare or obsolete. L16.
b. Of a part of the body: diseased. E17-M18.
a. Of an animal: inclined to be savage or bad-tempered. E18.
A. Carter The rats grew fat as piglets and vicious as hyenas.
b. Malignantly bitter or severe; malicious, spiteful, violent; transf. (of weather) severe, inclement. E19.
Time Described as the most vicious Mob boss of his generation. Vanity Fair The increasingly vicious threats Liman was receiving.
Special collocations: vicious abstraction Philosophy the abstraction of one quality or term from a thing at the expense of others. vicious circle: see CIRCLE noun 12. vicious cycle = CIRCLE noun 12. vicious intromission: see INTROMISSION 1. vicious spiral an undesirable progression of dependent causes and effects; esp. a cumulative rise in prices and wages.
b. absol. as noun pl. The people who are vicious, as a class. LME.
viciously adverb ME.
viciousness noun LME.