Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To make evil, harmful, and often untrue statements about (someone).
- adjective Evil or harmful in nature or effect.
- adjective Intending or threatening harm or ill will; malevolent.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Having a very evil disposition toward others; harboring violent hatred or enmity; malicious.
- Unpropitious; pernicious; tending to injure; likely to do or cause great harm: as, the malign influence of a designing knave.
- In astrology, having an evil influence.
- Malignant.
- Synonyms See list under
malignant . - To treat with extreme enmity; injure maliciously.
- To speak evil of; traduce; defame; vilify.
- Synonyms Defame, Calumniate, etc. See
asperse . - To entertain malice.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Having an evil disposition toward others; harboring violent enmity; malevolent; malicious; spiteful; -- opposed to
benign . - adjective Unfavorable; unpropitious; pernicious; tending to injure.
- adjective rare Malignant.
- intransitive verb obsolete To entertain malice.
- transitive verb obsolete To treat with malice; to show hatred toward; to abuse; to wrong; to injure.
- transitive verb To speak great evil of; to traduce; to defame; to slander; to vilify; to asperse.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
evil ormalignant indisposition ,nature ,intent orinfluence . - adjective
malevolent . - verb transitive To make
defamatory statements about someone or something.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective having or exerting a malignant influence
- adjective evil or harmful in nature or influence
- verb speak unfavorably about
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Small border outposts along the Iranian border have allowed the military in recent years to collect valuable intelligence on what it calls malign Iranian influence.
Despite political uncertainties in Iraq, U.S. sticking with drawdown plan 2010
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Small border outposts along the Iranian border have allowed the military in recent years to collect valuable intelligence on what it calls malign Iranian influence.
Despite political uncertainties in Iraq, U.S. sticking with drawdown plan 2010
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Sen. Obama countered that President Bush's style of diplomacy, fully embraced by Sen. McCain, allowed both Iran and North Korea, through years of what he described as malign neglect by the U.S., to become more armed and more dangerous.
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The Deified Thalygos Mundt came onscreen, his expression malign as always.
The Dragon Never Sleeps Cook, Glen 1988
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But until a special task force assembled by Gen. David Petraeus began its investigation last year, the coalition had little visibility into the connections many Afghan companies and their vast network of subcontractors had with insurgents and criminals - groups military officials call "malign actors."
U.S. Military Loses $360 Million To Afghanistan Insurgents, Criminals 2011
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I had my own concerns: If he took the antiwar route, I knew I would have been characterized as a malign force moving him to the left -- which wasn't true, although I wish it had been given that I now regard the Iraq invasion as one of the great mistakes in the history of U.S. foreign policy.
Shrum: I Worried That I'd Look Left-Wing If Edwards Voted Against Iraq War 2009
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The long term malign effect of this is that when oil runs out, we will face disaster – massive loss of life — because we will not have the time to develop the replacement technology that was within our ability.
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* A national disaster is turning into a humanitarian catastrophe of genuine epic proportions, in significant part because of what I would describe as the malign neglect of the socialist regime.
David Davis: Revived Speculation About Grasp of Reality 2008
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And while I will not dispute their use of the term when they are merely alluding to her somewhat contrary nature, I do take issue with them when they use the word to malign what she believes is her calling.
Water Witches Chris Bohjalian 1995
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This latter category of tactics, which we earlier dubbed malign persuasion, more frequently fails the tests of ethical appropriateness that we suggest.
The Manager as Negotiator Bargaining for Cooperation and Competitive Gain DAVID A. LAX 1986
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