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Define the word evil

"Evil" gcide "The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48"
Evil \E*vil\ ([=e]"v'l) a. [OE. evel, evil, ifel, uvel, AS.
   yfel; akin to OFries, evel, D. euvel, OS. & OHG. ubil, G.
   ["u]bel, Goth. ubils, and perh. to E. over.]
   1. Having qualities tending to injury and mischief; having a
      nature or properties which tend to badness; mischievous;
      not good; worthless or deleterious; poor; as, an evil
      beast; and evil plant; an evil crop.
      [1913 Webster]

            A good tree can not bring forth evil fruit. --Matt.
                                                  vii. 18.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Having or exhibiting bad moral qualities; morally corrupt;
      wicked; wrong; vicious; as, evil conduct, thoughts, heart,
      words, and the like.
      [1913 Webster]

            Ah, what a sign it is of evil life,
            When death's approach is seen so terrible. --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. Producing or threatening sorrow, distress, injury, or
      calamity; unpropitious; calamitous; as, evil tidings; evil
      arrows; evil days.
      [1913 Webster]

            Because he hath brought up an evil name upon a
            virgin of Israel.                     --Deut. xxii.
                                                  19.
      [1913 Webster]

            The owl shrieked at thy birth -- an evil sign.
                                                  --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

            Evil news rides post, while good news baits.
                                                  --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

   Evil eye, an eye which inflicts injury by some magical or
      fascinating influence. It is still believed by the
      ignorant and superstitious that some persons have the
      supernatural power of injuring by a look.
      [1913 Webster]

            It almost led him to believe in the evil eye. --J.
                                                  H. Newman.

   Evil speaking, speaking ill of others; calumny;
      censoriousness.

   The evil one, the Devil; Satan.
      [1913 Webster]

   Note: Evil is sometimes written as the first part of a
         compound (with or without a hyphen). In many cases the
         compounding need not be insisted on. Examples: Evil
         doer or evildoer, evil speaking or evil-speaking, evil
         worker, evil wishing, evil-hearted, evil-minded.

   Syn: Mischieveous; pernicious; injurious; hurtful;
        destructive; wicked; sinful; bad; corrupt; perverse;
        wrong; vicious; calamitous.
        [1913 Webster]
"Evil" gcide "The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48"
Evil \E"vil\ ([=e]"v'l) n.
   1. Anything which impairs the happiness of a being or
      deprives a being of any good; anything which causes
      suffering of any kind to sentient beings; injury;
      mischief; harm; -- opposed to good.
      [1913 Webster]

            Evils which our own misdeeds have wrought. --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

            The evil that men do lives after them. --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Moral badness, or the deviation of a moral being from the
      principles of virtue imposed by conscience, or by the will
      of the Supreme Being, or by the principles of a lawful
      human authority; disposition to do wrong; moral offence;
      wickedness; depravity.
      [1913 Webster]

            The heart of the sons of men is full of evil.
                                                  --Eccl. ix. 3.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. malady or disease; especially in the phrase king's evil,
      the scrofula. [R.] --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

            He [Edward the Confessor] was the first that touched
            for the evil.                         --Addison.
      [1913 Webster]
"Evil" gcide "The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48"
Evil \E"vil\, adv.
   In an evil manner; not well; ill; badly; unhappily;
   injuriously; unkindly. --Shak.
   [1913 Webster]

         It went evil with his house.             --1 Chron.
                                                  vii. 23.
   [1913 Webster]

         The Egyptians evil entreated us, and affected us.
                                                  --Deut. xxvi.
                                                  6.
   [1913 Webster]
"evil" wn "WordNet (r) 2.0"
evil
     adj 1: morally bad or wrong; "evil purposes"; "an evil influence";
            "evil deeds" [syn: wicked] [ant: good]
     2: having the nature of vice [syn: depraved, vicious]
     3: tending to cause great harm [syn: harmful, injurious]
     4: having or exerting a malignant influence; "malevolent
        stars"; "a malefic force" [syn: malefic, malevolent, malign]
     n 1: morally objectionable behavior [syn: immorality, wickedness,
           iniquity]
     2: that which causes harm or destruction or misfortune; "the
        evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft
        interred with their bones"- Shakespeare
     3: the quality of being morally wrong in principle or practice;
        "attempts to explain the origin of evil in the world"
        [syn: evilness] [ant: good, good]
"evil" moby-thes "Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0"
364 Moby Thesaurus words for "evil":
   Loki, Nemesis, Set, Typhon, aberrant, abnormal, abominable,
   abomination, accursed, ado, affliction, agony, amorality, angry,
   anguish, annoyance, anxiety, apocalyptic, arrant, atrocious,
   atrocity, awful, backsliding, bad, badness, baleful, bane, baneful,
   base, baseness, befoulment, besetment, bitchy, black, blamable,
   blameworthy, blight, bodeful, boding, bother, breach, bugbear,
   burden, calamitous, calamity, can of worms, carnality, cataclysm,
   catastrophe, catastrophic, catty, corrupt, corruption, crime,
   crime against humanity, criminal, criminality, crooked,
   crushing burden, crying evil, curse, damage, damaging, damnable,
   dark, deadly, deadly sin, death, debt, defilement, degeneracy,
   degradation, deleterious, delinquency, delinquent, depraved,
   depravity, dereliction, despiteful, despoliation, destruction,
   destructive, detriment, detrimental, deviant, devilry, deviltry,
   diablerie, diabolism, difficult, dire, dirty, disadvantage,
   disagreeable, disaster, disastrous, disease, disgrace, disgraceful,
   disgusting, dishonest, dishonorable, distasteful, doomful,
   dreadful, dreary, enormity, error, evil nature, evil-minded,
   evil-starred, evildoing, evilness, execrable, failure, fateful,
   fault, felonious, felony, fetid, flagitious, flagitiousness,
   flagrant, foreboding, foul, foulness, genocide, ghastly, gloomy,
   great ado, grievance, grisly, guilty act, hard, hardly the thing,
   harm, harmful, hateful, havoc, headache, heavy sin, heinous,
   heinousness, hideous, horrible, horrid, hurt, hurtful, ignominious,
   ill, ill-boding, ill-fated, ill-omened, ill-starred, illegal,
   immoral, immorality, improper, impropriety, impurity, inaccurate,
   inappropriate, inauspicious, inconvenience, incorrect, indecorous,
   indiscretion, inexpedient, inexpiable sin, infamous, infamy,
   infection, infelicitous, inferior, infliction, iniquitous,
   iniquity, injurious, injury, injustice, insidious, invalid,
   knavery, knavish, lapse, lethal, loathsome, low, lowering,
   malefaction, malefic, maleficence, maleficent, malevolent,
   malfeasance, malign, malignant, malum, matter, menacing, mephitic,
   minor wrong, mischief, mischievous, misconduct, misdeed,
   misdemeanor, misery, misfeasance, misfortune, monstrous,
   moral delinquency, mortal sin, nasty, naughty, nefarious,
   nefariousness, nemesis, nonfeasance, not done, not the thing,
   noxious, obliquity, obscene, of evil portent, off-base, off-color,
   offense, offensive, ominous, omission, open wound, out-of-line,
   outrage, pain, peccability, peccadillo, peccancy, peccant,
   peck of troubles, perfidious, pernicious, pest, pestilence,
   pestilential, plague, poison, poisonous, pollution, portending,
   portentous, problem, prodigality, profligacy, putrid, rancorous,
   rank, recidivism, repellent, reprehensible, reprobacy, reprobate,
   repugnant, repulsive, revolting, ruin, ruinous, running sore,
   sacrilegious, satanism, scandal, scandalous, scourge,
   sea of troubles, shame, shameful, shameless, sin,
   sin of commission, sin of omission, sinful, sinful act, sinfulness,
   sinister, slip, somber, sorrow, spiteful, stinking, suffering,
   terrible, the worst, thorn, threatening, torment, tort, toxic,
   toxin, traitorous, transgression, treacherous, trespass, trip,
   trouble, trying, turpitude, ugly, unangelicalness, unchastity,
   uncleanness, underhanded, undue, unfavorable, unfit, unfitting,
   unforgivable, unfortunate, ungodliness, ungoodness, unhealthy,
   unkind, unlawful, unlucky, unmorality, unpardonable, unpleasant,
   unprincipled, unpromising, unpropitious, unrighteous,
   unrighteousness, unsaintliness, unscrupulous, unseemly, unskillful,
   unspeakable, unsuitable, untoward, unutterable sin, unvirtuousness,
   unworthy, venial sin, venom, vexation, vice, vicious, viciousness,
   vile, vileness, villainous, villainy, virulent, visitation,
   wantonness, waywardness, wicked, wickedness, woe, woeful, worry,
   wrathful, wrong, wrongdoing, wrongful



"evil" jargon "Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001)"
evil adj. As used by hackers, implies that some system, program,
   person, or institution is sufficiently maldesigned as to be not worth
   the bother of dealing with. Unlike the adjectives in the
   cretinous/losing/brain-damaged series, `evil' does not imply
   incompetence or bad design, but rather a set of goals or design criteria
   fatally incompatible with the speaker's. This usage is more an esthetic
   and engineering judgment than a moral one in the mainstream sense. "We
   thought about adding a Blue Glue interface but decided it was too evil
   to deal with." "TECO is neat, but it can be pretty evil if you're
   prone to typos." Often pronounced with the first syllable lengthened, as
   /eeee'vil/. Compare evil and rude.


"evil" foldoc "The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)"
evil
     
        As used by a hacker, implies that some system, program,
        person, or institution is sufficiently maldesigned as to be
        not worth the bother of dealing with.  Unlike the adjectives
        in the cretinous, losing, brain-damaged series, "evil"
        does not imply incompetence or bad design, but rather a set of
        goals or design criteria fatally incompatible with the
        speaker's.  This usage is more an aesthetic and engineering
        judgment than a moral one in the mainstream sense.  "We
        thought about adding a Blue Glue interface but decided it
        was too evil to deal with."  "TECO is neat, but it can be
        pretty evil if you're prone to typos."  Often pronounced with
        the first syllable lengthened, as /eeee'vil/.
     
        Compare evil and rude.
     
        [Jargon File]
     
        (1994-12-12)
     
     


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