malign

malign
    adj 1: evil or harmful in nature or influence; "prompted by
           malign motives"; "believed in witches and malign
           spirits"; "gave him a malign look"; "a malign lesion"
           [ant: {benign}, {benignant}]
    2: having or exerting a malignant influence; "malevolent stars";
       "a malefic force" [syn: {malefic}, {malevolent}, {malign},
       {evil}]
    v 1: speak unfavorably about; "She badmouths her husband
         everywhere" [syn: {badmouth}, {malign}, {traduce}, {drag
         through the mud}]
    

malign \ma*lign"\, a. [L. malignus, for maligenus, i. e., of a
   bad kind or nature; malus bad + the root of genus birth,
   race, kind: cf. F. malin, masc., maligne, fem. See {Malice},
   {Gender}, and cf. {Benign}, {Malignant}.]
   1. Having an evil disposition toward others; harboring
      violent enmity; malevolent; malicious; spiteful; --
      opposed to {benign}.
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            Witchcraft may be by operation of malign spirits.
                                                  --Bacon.
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   2. Unfavorable; unpropitious; pernicious; tending to injure;
      as, a malign aspect of planets.
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   3. Malignant; as, a malign ulcer. [R.] --Bacon.
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Malign \Ma*lign"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Maligned}; p. pr. & vb.
   n. {Maligning}.] [Cf. L. malignare. See {Malign}, a.]
   To treat with malice; to show hatred toward; to abuse; to
   wrong; to injure. [Obs.]
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         The people practice what mischiefs and villainies they
         will against private men, whom they malign by stealing
         their goods, or murdering them.          --Spenser.
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   2. To speak great evil of; to traduce; to defame; to slander;
      to vilify; to asperse.
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            To be envied and shot at; to be maligned standing,
            and to be despised falling.           --South.
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Malign \Ma*lign"\, v. i.
   To entertain malice. [Obs.]
   [1913 Webster] Malignance
    

140 Moby Thesaurus words for "malign":
      antagonistic, antipathetic, asperse, atrocious, backbite,
      bad-mouth, baleful, baneful, barbaric, barbarous, befoul, besmirch,
      bespatter, bestial, bitchy, blacken, bloody, blow upon, brutal,
      brutish, calumniate, cast aspersions on, cast reflections on,
      catching, communicable, contagious, corroding, corrosive,
      corrupting, corruptive, counterproductive, cussed, damaging,
      deadly, death-bringing, deathful, deathly, decry, defame, defile,
      deleterious, denigrate, depreciate, derogate, despiteful,
      destructive, detract, detrimental, disadvantageous, disparage,
      disserviceable, distressing, envenomed, evil, fatal, feral, ferine,
      ferocious, fierce, harmful, hateful, hostile, hurtful, infectious,
      infective, inhuman, inimical, iniquitous, injurious, internecine,
      invidious, kill-crazy, killing, lethal, libel, malefic, maleficent,
      malevolent, malicious, malignant, mean, mephitic, merciless,
      miasmal, miasmatic, miasmic, mischievous, mortal, murderous, nasty,
      noisome, noncivilized, noxious, ominous, ornery, pernicious,
      pestiferous, pestilential, pitiless, poisonous, pollute,
      prejudicial, rancorous, revile, ruthless, sanguinary, savage,
      scandal, scandalize, scatheful, slander, slur, smear, smirch, soil,
      spatter, spiteful, stain, sully, taint, tameless, tarnish,
      tear down, toxic, toxicant, toxiferous, traduce, uncivilized,
      ungentle, untamed, venenate, veneniferous, venenous, venomous,
      vicious, vilify, virulent, vituperate, wicked, wild