Evil
['iːv(ə)l;-vɪl] or ['ivl]
Definition
(noun.) morally objectionable behavior.
(noun.) the quality of being morally wrong in principle or practice; 'attempts to explain the origin of evil in the world'.
(noun.) 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.
(adj.) morally bad or wrong; 'evil purposes'; 'an evil influence'; 'evil deeds' .
(adj.) having the nature of vice .
Inputed by Jon--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) 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.
(a.) Having or exhibiting bad moral qualities; morally corrupt; wicked; wrong; vicious; as, evil conduct, thoughts, heart, words, and the like.
(a.) Producing or threatening sorrow, distress, injury, or calamity; unpropitious; calamitous; as, evil tidings; evil arrows; evil days.
(n.) 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.
(n.) 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.
(n.) malady or disease; especially in the phrase king's evil, the scrofula.
(adv.) In an evil manner; not well; ill; badly; unhappily; injuriously; unkindly.
Typist: Waldo
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. [1]. Bad, ill, not good.[2]. Wicked, sinful, vicious, corrupt, perverse, wrong.[3]. Mischievous, hurtful, harmful, noxious, deleterious.[4]. Unhappy, unfortunate, calamitous, adverse, unpropitious.
n. [1]. Calamity, misfortune, disaster, reverse.[2]. Wickedness, sin, depravity, malignity, wicked disposition.[3]. Wrong, injury, mischief, harm.
Editor: Rae
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN: noxious, deleterious, wrong, bad, mischievous, hurtful, sinful,unhappy, adverse, unpropitious, wicked, corrupt, harmful, unfair, notorious,miserable, sorrowful
ANT:Wholesome, beneficial, right, virtuous, holy, pure, happy, fortunate,felicitous, joyous, welcome, grateful, good
Checked by Aubrey
Definition
adj. wicked: mischievous: disagreeable: unfortunate.—adv. in an evil manner: badly.—n. that which produces unhappiness or calamity: harm: wickedness: depravity: sin.—ns. E′vil-do′er one who does evil; E′vil-eye a supposed power to cause evil or harm by the look of the eye.—adj. E′vil-fā′voured having a repulsive appearance: ugly.—n. E′vil-fā′vouredness (B.) ugliness: deformity.—adv. E′villy in an evil manner: not well.—adj. E′vil-mind′ed inclined to evil: malicious: wicked.—ns. E′vilness state of being evil: wickedness; E′vil-speak′ing the speaking of evil: slander.—adj. E′vil-starred (Tenn.) born under the influence of an unpropitious star unfortunate.—n. E′vil-work′er one who works or does evil.—The Evil One the devil.—Speak evil of to slander.
Checked by Ellen
Examples
- Undoubtedly, he said, the form of government which you describe is a mixture of good and evil. Plato. The Republic.
- A certain Jarndyce, in an evil hour, made a great fortune, and made a great will. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- Good fruit, Sir Knight, said the yeoman, will sometimes grow on a sorry tree; and evil times are not always productive of evil alone and unmixed. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- The interruption was not unseasonable: sufficient for the day is always the evil; for this hour, its good sufficed. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- The apprehension was for the possibility of evil he imagined. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- But the evil doesn't come from the fact that it plays horse with the Newtonian theory of the constitution. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- It was a sad, anxious day; and the morrow, though differing in the sort of evil, did by no means bring less. Jane Austen. Mansfield Park.
- It was an average body of American citizens aroused to action by an obvious evil. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- That the oldest had still hopes of living one day longer, and looked on death as the greatest evil, from which nature always prompted him to retreat. Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
- But this is how one historian, soaked with the fantastic political ideas of our times, is pleased to write of this evil expedition. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- They would extract good from the excess of evil,[440] and presently France would fall back helpless into the hands of her legitimate masters. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Yet, all things considered, she was not of an evil mind or an unkindly disposition. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- That is an evil contribution, unquestionably. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- If he followed it by mere fortuitous coincidence, it was done by an evil chance. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- Where, to what distance apart, had her father wandered, led by doubts which were to her temptations of the Evil One? Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- Fanny was silent; but not from being convinced that there might not be a remedy found for some of these evils. Jane Austen. Mansfield Park.
- The heralds of this gospel were acutely conscious of the evils of the social estate in which they found themselves. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- Reflecting upon these and similar evils, you held the tyrannical State to be the most miserable of States? Plato. The Republic.
- Fear overcame me; I dared not advance, dreading a thousand nameless evils that made me tremble, although I was unable to define them. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
- Poor bewildered statesmen, unused to any notion of change, have seen the national life grow to a monstrous confusion and sprout monstrous evils by the way. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- I had been the author of unalterable evils; and I lived in daily fear, lest the monster whom I had created should perpetrate some new wickedness. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
- Here's a disaster--a multiplicity of disasters in short, as Lady Berwick said one day, when the compound evils fell upon her. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- The evils from which society suffers are set down to the efforts of misguided individuals to transgress these boundaries. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- Yes, he said, there are all the evils which we were just now passing in review: unrighteousness, intemperance, cowardice, ignorance. Plato. The Republic.
- They meet the evils of dance halls by barricading them; they go forth to battle against vice by raiding brothels and fining prostitutes. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- Through all the world spreads the suspicion that this scheme of things might be remade, and remade better, and that our present evils need not be. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Evils, that are certain, have sometimes the same effect in producing fear, as the possible or impossible. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- Many men, just as well aware of present-day evils as the socialists, are unwilling to accept the collectivist remedy. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- This graver world of 1920 does seem to be awakening to the truth that there are realities worth seeking and evils not to be tolerated. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- It is not of particular, but of general evils, which I am now complaining. Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.
Edited by Elise