Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Being or behaving like a villain.
- adjective Appropriate to or characteristic of a villain.
- adjective Highly unpleasant or annoying.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Pertaining to, befitting, or having the character of a villain, in any sense; especially, very wicked or depraved; extremely vile.
- Proceeding from extreme wickedness or depravity: as, a villainous action.
- Of things, very bad; dreadful; mean; vile; wretched.
- In a vile manner or way; villainously.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Base; vile; mean; depraved.
- adjective Proceeding from, or showing, extreme depravity; suited to a villain.
- adjective Sorry; mean; mischievous; -- in a familiar sense.
- adjective (O. E. Law) a judgment that casts reproach on the guilty person.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective of, relating to, or appropriate to a
villain - adjective
obnoxious ,offensive orreprehensible innature orbehaviour ;nefarious
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective extremely wicked
Etymologies
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Examples
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Clearly, he considered me to have engaged in villainous practices.
Archive 2008-02-01 2008
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While Megatron and Optimus Prime are fighting, Megatron says in villainous fashion, "These humans don't deserve to live!" to which Optimus replies, "They deserve to choose for themselves!"
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Plato to be pitied or laughd at? must he be elegized or odified? or be sung in villainous ballads to a scurvey tune?
Letter 68 1793
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That Emma has been flippant rather than villainous is the saving grace that makes Mr. Knightley’s reprimand seem not only tolerable but meliorative, an appeal to a latent, better self, one informed by the "natural charity" of her "heart," as A. Walton Litz puts it (141).
Boxing Emma; or the Readers Dilemma at the Box Hill Games 2000
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A nation that once was great is now called villainous because of people like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
A Letter to Ali Khameini Parvaneh Vahidmanesh 2009
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Nor does either of these dramas, though the earlier depicts a corrupt civilisation, include even among the minor characters anyone who can be called villainous or horrible.
Shakespearean Tragedy Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth 1893
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The "Nihongi" gives dates of events supposed to have happened fifteen hundred years before, with an accuracy which may be called villainous; while the "Kojiki" states that Wani, a Korean teacher, brought the "Thousand Character Classic" to Japan in A.D.
The Religions of Japan From the Dawn of History to the Era of Méiji William Elliot Griffis 1885
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These assertions will be estimated at the proper value by those who are acquainted with Trenchard's pamphlets, pamphlets in which the shocking word villainous will without difficulty be found, and which are full of malignant reflections on William.
The History of England, from the Accession of James II — Volume 5 Thomas Babington Macaulay Macaulay 1829
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What separates the heroic from the villainous is the use, and abuse, of power.
Buffalo Pundit 2009
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Holland / Swamp Thing nearly completes this desire until the scientist, Jason Woodrue aka the villainous Floronic Man, hired by Swamp Thing's
comicbookbin.com 2009
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