Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Evil or immoral.
  • adjective Playfully malicious or mischievous.
  • adjective Severe and distressing.
  • adjective Highly offensive; obnoxious.
  • adjective Slang Strikingly good, effective, or skillful.
  • adverb Used as an intensive.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Quick; active.
  • Evil in principle or practice; deviating from the divine or the moral law; addicted to vice; depraved; vicious; sinful; immoral; bad; wrong; iniquitous: a word of comprehensive signification, including everything that is contrary to the moral law, and applied both to persons and to their acts: as, a wicked man; a wicked deed; wicked ways; wicked lives; a wicked heart; wicked designs; wicked works.
  • Vile; baneful; pernicious; noxious.
  • Troublesome; difficult; hard; painful; unfavorable; disagreeable.
  • Mischievous; prone or disposed to mischief, often good-natured mischief; roguish: as, a wicked urchin.
  • Synonyms Illegal, Immoral, etc. (see criminal), Heinous, Infamous, etc. (see atrocious), unrighteous, profane, ungodly, godless, impious, unprincipled, vile, abandoned, prolligate.
  • noun A wicked person; one who is or those who are wicked.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Evil in principle or practice; deviating from morality; contrary to the moral or divine law; addicted to vice or sin; sinful; immoral; profligate; -- said of persons and things
  • adjective obsolete Cursed; baneful; hurtful; bad; pernicious; dangerous.
  • adjective colloq. Ludicrously or sportively mischievous; disposed to mischief; roguish.
  • adjective Having a wick; -- used chiefly in composition.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Simple past tense and past participle of wick.
  • adjective Having a wick.
  • adjective UK, dialect Infested with maggots.
  • adjective Evil or mischievous by nature.
  • adjective slang Excellent; awesome; masterful; deeply satisfying.
  • adverb slang, New England, UK Very, extremely.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective morally bad in principle or practice
  • adjective having committed unrighteous acts
  • adjective highly offensive; arousing aversion or disgust
  • adjective intensely or extremely bad or unpleasant in degree or quality
  • adjective naughtily or annoyingly playful

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, alteration of wicke, ultimately from Old English wicca, sorcerer; see witch.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

See wick

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

1225-75 Middle English wikked, wikke, an alteration of wicke, adjectival use of Old English wicca ("wizard, sorcerer")

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Examples

  • Oh! she's a wicked woman, she is, a _wicked_ woman, a _very_ wicked woman; she's got some of my things because I'm behind-hand in my rent, and she says she won't give them up; but she _shall_.

    The Bed-Book of Happiness Harold Begbie 1900

  • I couldn't see what Brian had ever done to deserve such a fate as his, and I began to feel wicked, _wicked_.

    Everyman's Land 1889

  • "Now you tread on dangerous ground, wicked one -- _wicked_!

    The Last Hope Henry Seton Merriman 1882

  • When others are more wicked] Dr. Warburton would exchange the repeated epithet _wicked_ into _wrinkled_ in both places.

    Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies Samuel Johnson 1746

  • And the title wicked one can certainly be applied to the being who instituted oaths in his own name since Jesus Chr*stos says But let your Yes be Yes, and your No, No.

    Diglotting and Debunking Jesus Mythicism James F. McGrath 2009

  • The word 'wicked', for example, could appear in three different Tweets with a different meaning each time.

    IT Breaks Free Nigel Kendall 2011

  • Jeffs controls his followers by steering them away from the outside, what he calls a wicked and immoral world.

    CNN Transcript May 11, 2006 2006

  • Jeffs controls his followers by steering them away from the outside, what he calls a wicked and immoral world.

    CNN Transcript May 9, 2006 2006

  • As shining light increases from twilight to noonday splendor, so the course of the just increases in purity, but that of the wicked is as thickest darkness, in which one knows not on what he stumbles.

    Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible 1871

  • If you were tempted by what you call wicked thoughts you would not nurse them.

    Catharine Furze Mark Rutherford 1872

Comments

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  • New England slang for "great", often used to emphasize other superlatives, as in "wicked good."

    December 30, 2007