vicious

vicious
    adj 1: (of persons or their actions) able or disposed to inflict
           pain or suffering; "a barbarous crime"; "brutal
           beatings"; "cruel tortures"; "Stalin's roughshod
           treatment of the kulaks"; "a savage slap"; "vicious
           kicks" [syn: {barbarous}, {brutal}, {cruel}, {fell},
           {roughshod}, {savage}, {vicious}]
    2: having the nature of vice [syn: {evil}, {vicious}]
    3: bringing or deserving severe rebuke or censure; "a criminal
       waste of talent"; "a deplorable act of violence"; "adultery
       is as reprehensible for a husband as for a wife" [syn:
       {condemnable}, {criminal}, {deplorable}, {reprehensible},
       {vicious}]
    4: marked by deep ill will; deliberately harmful; "poisonous
       hate"; "venomous criticism"; "vicious gossip" [syn:
       {poisonous}, {venomous}, {vicious}]
    

Vicious \Vi"cious\, a. [OF. vicious, F. vicieux, fr. L.
   vitiosus, fr. vitium vice. See {Vice} a fault.]
   1. Characterized by vice or defects; defective; faulty;
      imperfect.
      [1913 Webster]

            Though I perchance am vicious in my guess. --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

            The title of these lords was vicious in its origin.
                                                  --Burke.
      [1913 Webster]

            A charge against Bentley of vicious reasoning. --De
                                                  Quincey.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Addicted to vice; corrupt in principles or conduct;
      depraved; wicked; as, vicious children; vicious examples;
      vicious conduct.
      [1913 Webster]

            Who . . . heard this heavy curse,
            Servant of servants, on his vicious race. --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. Wanting purity; foul; bad; noxious; as, vicious air,
      water, etc. --Dryden.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. Not correct or pure; corrupt; as, vicious language;
      vicious idioms.
      [1913 Webster]

   5. Not well tamed or broken; given to bad tricks; unruly;
      refractory; as, a vicious horse.
      [1913 Webster]

   6. Bitter; spiteful; malignant. [Colloq.]
      [1913 Webster]

   Syn: Corrupt; faulty; wicked; depraved.
        [1913 Webster] -- {Vi"cious*ly}, adv. --
        {Vi"cious*ness}, n.
        [1913 Webster]
    

199 Moby Thesaurus words for "vicious":
      Draconian, Tartarean, abominable, acrimonious, amoral, animal,
      anthropophagous, arrant, atrocious, bad, baleful, baneful,
      barbaric, barbarous, base, beastly, bestial, bitchy, bitter, black,
      blamable, blameworthy, bloodthirsty, bloody, bloody-minded, brutal,
      brutalized, brute, brutish, cannibalistic, concentrated,
      contaminated, corroding, corrosive, corrupt, corrupting,
      corruptive, counterproductive, criminal, cruel, cruel-hearted,
      damaging, damnable, dark, deadly, defamatory, degenerate, degraded,
      degrading, deleterious, demoniac, demoniacal, depraved, desperate,
      despiteful, detrimental, devilish, diabolic, diabolical,
      disadvantageous, disgraceful, disserviceable, distressing, evil,
      execrable, exquisite, faulty, fearful, fell, feral, ferine,
      ferocious, fiendish, fiendlike, fierce, flagitious, flagrant, foul,
      furious, harmful, hateful, heinous, hellish, hurtful, ill, immoral,
      improper, inaccurate, inauspicious, inexpedient, infamous,
      inferior, infernal, inhuman, inhumane, iniquitous, injurious,
      invalid, kill-crazy, knavish, lethal, low, malefic, malevolent,
      malicious, malign, malignant, mean, merciless, mischievous,
      miscreant, monstrous, murderous, nasty, naughty, nefarious,
      noisome, noncivilized, nonmoral, noxious, obnoxious, odious,
      ominous, opprobrious, peccant, pernicious, perverse, perverted,
      pitiless, poisonous, poor, prejudicial, profligate, putrid,
      rancorous, rank, ravening, reprehensible, reprobate, rotten,
      ruthless, sadistic, sanguinary, sanguineous, satanic, savage,
      scandalous, scatheful, septic, severe, shameful, shameless,
      sharkish, sinful, sinister, slanderous, slavering, spiteful,
      steeped in vice, subhuman, tameless, terrible, toxic, truculent,
      unchristian, uncivilized, unfavorable, unforgivable, ungentle,
      unhealthy, unhuman, unkind, unmoral, unpardonable, unpleasant,
      unprincipled, unskillful, unsound, unspeakable, untamed, untoward,
      unworthy, vehement, venal, venenate, veneniferous, venenous,
      venomous, vice-laden, vice-prone, vile, villainous, vindictive,
      violent, virulent, wicked, wild, wolfish, wrong