VINDICTIVENESS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does vindictiveness mean? 

• VINDICTIVENESS (noun)
  The noun VINDICTIVENESS has 1 sense:

1. a malevolent desire for revenge

  Familiarity information: VINDICTIVENESS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VINDICTIVENESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A malevolent desire for revenge

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

vengefulness; vindictiveness

Hypernyms ("vindictiveness" is a kind of...):

malevolence; malignity (wishing evil to others)

Derivation:

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

vindictive (disposed to seek revenge or intended for revenge)

 Context examples 

“Have you ever earned a dollar by your own labour?” he demanded, certain of her answer, a triumphant vindictiveness in his voice.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He was a dashing, jovial old soldier in his usual mood, but there were occasions on which he seemed to show himself capable of considerable violence and vindictiveness.

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

Not that St. John harboured a spirit of unchristian vindictiveness—not that he would have injured a hair of my head, if it had been fully in his power to do so.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)