MALICIOUS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does malicious mean? 

• MALICIOUS (adjective)
  The adjective MALICIOUS has 1 sense:

1. having the nature of or resulting from malice

  Familiarity information: MALICIOUS used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MALICIOUS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Having the nature of or resulting from malice

Context example:

took malicious pleasure in...watching me wince

Similar:

despiteful; spiteful; vindictive (showing malicious ill will and a desire to hurt; motivated by spite)

leering (showing sly or knowing malice in a glance)

malevolent (wishing or appearing to wish evil to others; arising from intense ill will or hatred)

beady-eyed (having eyes that gleam with malice)

bitchy; cattish; catty (marked by or arising from malice)

poisonous; venomous; vicious (marked by deep ill will; deliberately harmful)

venomed (full of malice or hate)

vixenish (shrewish and malicious)

Antonym:

unmalicious (not malicious or spiteful)

Derivation:

malice; maliciousness (feeling a need to see others suffer)

 Context examples 

“You must try round and get on a fresh scent, I fancy,” said the son with a rather malicious smile.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A very deep, malicious, vindictive person is the gentleman who is now waiting us downstairs.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Olney looked at Ruth, and his expression was malicious.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The reports noted the malicious devices included internet-connected devices — not only servers and desktops, but also webcams, digital video recorders, routers — referred to as the Internet of Things.

(Distributed malware attacks Dyn DNS, takes down websites in US, Wikinews)

I am malicious because I am miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by all mankind?

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Look ’ere, ’Ump, he began, a malicious light in his eyes and a snarl in his throat; d’ye want yer nose punched?

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

It was malicious, horrible, with two small red eyes as bright as points of burning coal.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Black” Burton, a man evil-tempered and malicious, had been picking a quarrel with a tenderfoot at the bar, when Thornton stepped good-naturedly between.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Yet I am of opinion, this defect arises chiefly from a perverse, restive disposition; for they are cunning, malicious, treacherous, and revengeful.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I could have sworn that it was set in a malicious and abominable smile.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)