MALIGN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does malign mean? 

• MALIGN (adjective)
  The adjective MALIGN has 2 senses:

1. evil or harmful in nature or influence

2. having or exerting a malignant influence

  Familiarity information: MALIGN used as an adjective is rare.

• MALIGN (verb)
  The verb MALIGN has 1 sense:

1. speak unfavorably about

  Familiarity information: MALIGN used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MALIGN (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Evil or harmful in nature or influence

Context example:

a malign lesion

Similar:

cancerous (like a cancer; an evil that grows and spreads)

Also:

maleficent (harmful or evil in intent or effect)

harmful (causing or capable of causing harm)

unkind (lacking kindness)

Attribute:

malignance; malignancy; malignity (quality of being disposed to evil; intense ill will)

Antonym:

benign (pleasant and beneficial in nature or influence)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Having or exerting a malignant influence

Synonyms:

evil; malefic; malevolent; malign

Context example:

a malefic force

Similar:

maleficent (harmful or evil in intent or effect)

Derivation:

malignity (quality of being disposed to evil; intense ill will)

• MALIGN (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they malign    ... he / she / it maligns   
Past simple: maligned   
Past participle: maligned   
-ing form: maligning   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Speak unfavorably about

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

badmouth; drag through the mud; malign; traduce

Context example:

She badmouths her husband everywhere

Hypernyms (to "malign" is one way to...):

asperse; besmirch; calumniate; defame; denigrate; slander; smear; smirch; sully (charge falsely or with malicious intent; attack the good name and reputation of someone)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

maligner (one who attacks the reputation of another by slander or libel)

malignment (slanderous defamation)

 Context examples 

Yes, to me whom he has maligned and injured.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

“Who dares malign him? He had a soul worth millions of the friends to whom he stooped!”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Can it be that there is a malign influence of the sun at periods which affects certain natures—as at times the moon does others? We shall see.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

A subtype of delusional disorder characterized by the central delusional theme that the individual is being malevolently treated (for example, maligned, harassed, conspired against, poisoned or drugged) by another person or group.

(Persecutory Type Delusional Disorder, NCI Thesaurus)

This familiar that I called out of my own soul, and sent forth alone to do his good pleasure, was a being inherently malign and villainous; his every act and thought centered on self; drinking pleasure with bestial avidity from any degree of torture to another; relentless like a man of stone.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

There is no malign there, see, and so it make hard that I must kill her in her sleep." This turned my blood cold, and it began to dawn upon me that I was accepting Van Helsing's theories; but if she were really dead, what was there of terror in the idea of killing her? He looked up at me, and evidently saw the change in my face, for he said almost joyously:—Ah, you believe now?

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)