vicious

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Savage and aggressive.

   He had always been remarkably immune from such little ailments, and had only once in his life been ill, of a vicious pneumonia long ago at school. He hadn't the faintest idea what to with a cold in the head, he just took quinine and continued to blow his nose.

2. 2
   adj

   Pertaining to vice; characterised by immorality or depravity.

   We may so seize on vertue, that if we embrace it with an over-greedy and violent desire, it may become vicious.

3. 3
   adj

   marked by deep ill will

4. 4
   adj

   (of persons or their actions) able or disposed to inflict pain or suffering

5. 5
   adj

   bringing or deserving severe rebuke or censure

6. 6
   adj

   having the nature of vice

7. 7
   adj

   Violent, destructive and cruel.

8. 8
   name

   A surname.

Etymology

PIE word *dwóh₁ From Middle English vicious, from Anglo-Norman vicious, (modern French vicieux), from Latin vitiōsus, from vitium (“fault, vice”). Equivalent to vice + -ous.