Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The calling down of a curse.
- noun A curse.
- noun Slander.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In anc. eccles, law, a curse annexed to the donation of lands to churches or religious institutions against those who should violate their rights.
- noun Evil speaking; a cursing; the utterance of a curse or execration; also, a curse.
- noun Synonyms Malediction, Curse, Imprecation, Execration, Anathema. All these are strong words; they are all presumably of the nature of prayers, malediction having the least of this meaning. Malediction in its derivation contains the idea that is common to them all, that of expressing a desire for evil upon another. Curse, imprecation, and execration are often used of the wanton calling down of evil upon those with whom one is angry, but all five may indicate a formal or official act. Execration expresses most of personal hatred; indeed, the word is sometimes used simply to express an intense and outspoken hatred: as, he was held in execration. Anathema has kept within its original limits, as expressing a curse pronounced formally by ecclesiastical authority.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A proclaiming of evil against some one; a cursing; imprecation; a curse or execration; -- opposed to
benediction .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
curse - noun
Evil speech
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the act of calling down a curse that invokes evil (and usually serves as an insult)
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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But what shall I do, if my father cannot be prevailed upon to recall his malediction?
Clarissa Harlowe 2006
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But what shall I do, if my father cannot be prevailed upon to recall his malediction?
Clarissa Harlowe; or the history of a young lady — Volume 6 Samuel Richardson 1725
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If any kind of malediction be justifiable, it is _male dicere maledicis_, — to speak evil to evil speakers, for “as he loved cursing, so let it come unto him as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him.”
The Works of Mr. George Gillespie (Vol. 1 of 2) George Gillespie 1630
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Fortune did not whirl, but gay San Francisco dimmed and faded, and as the sun-bright snow turned black and blacker, he breathed his last malediction on the Chance he had misplayed.
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As he dies, the fatalist succumbs amid London's refrain: “Fortune did not whirl, but gay San Francisco dimmed and faded; and as the sun-bright snow turned blacker and blacker, he breathed his last malediction on the Chance he had misplayed.”
“The Kipling of the Klondike”: Naturalism in London's Early Fiction 2010
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Her gender has no bearing upon her (in) competence as great as shouldnt be partial of any malediction it usually lessens a effect of your perspective as great as creates we appear similar to an extremist.
Archive 2009-11-01 admin 2009
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Her gender has no bearing upon her (in) competence as great as shouldnt be partial of any malediction it usually lessens a effect of your perspective as great as creates we appear similar to an extremist.
No broadcasts from Section 1 finals | Varsity Insider admin 2009
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Yet the book is no "long and lofty malediction" either.
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Now La Perle faces the pistol, certain that "Chance would not desert him now," but Uri Bram's shot is true: "Fortune did not whirl, but gay San Francisco dimmed and faded, and as the sun-bright snow turned black and blacker, he breathed his last malediction on the chance he had misplayed."
“Why this longing for life? It is a game which no man wins.” 2008
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It represented -- was -- the inner creature, the animal spirit, resident in all men, all women, triggered into life by a malediction or a wry blessing, by magic, or only at the madness of full moon.
New Race Joe Sullivan 2010
sweetzingiber commented on the word malediction
to wish evil upon another
August 1, 2009
SouvikDubey commented on the word malediction
male(bad) + diction(to speak about some thing ) ---> curse/slander
July 29, 2012