Adjacent Words

Malign definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

MALIGN, a. mali'ne. [L. malignus, from malus, evil. See Malady.]
1. Having a very evil disposition towards others; harboring violent hatred or enmity; malicious; as malign spirits.
2. Unfavorable; pernicious; tending to injure; as a malign aspect of planets.
3. Malignant; pernicious; as a malign ulcer.
MALIGN, v.t. To regard with envy or malice; to treat with extreme enmity; to injure maliciously.
The people practice mischief against private men, whom they malign by stealing their goods and murdering them.
1. To traduce; to defame.
MALIGN, v.i. To entertain malice.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: evil or harmful in nature or influence; "prompted by malign motives"; "believed in witches and malign spirits"; "gave him a malign look"; "a malign lesion" [ant: benign, benignant]
2: having or exerting a malignant influence; "malevolent stars"; "a malefic force" [syn: malefic, malevolent, malign, evil] v
1: speak unfavorably about; "She badmouths her husband everywhere" [syn: badmouth, malign, traduce, drag through the mud]

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective Etymology: Middle English maligne, from Anglo-French, from Latin malignus, from male badly + gignere to beget — more at mal-, kin Date: 14th century 1. a. evil in nature, influence, or effect ; injurious <the malign effects of illicit drugs> b. malignant, virulent 2. having or showing intense often vicious ill will ; malevolent Synonyms: see sinister • malignly adverb II. transitive verb Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French maligner to act maliciously, from Late Latin malignari, from Latin malignus Date: 15th century to utter injuriously misleading or false reports about ; speak evil of Synonyms: malign, traduce, asperse, vilify, calumniate, defame, slander mean to injure by speaking ill of. malign suggests specific and often subtle misrepresentation but may not always imply deliberate lying <the most maligned monarch in British history>. traduce stresses the resulting ignominy and distress to the victim <so traduced the governor that he was driven from office>. asperse implies continued attack on a reputation often by indirect or insinuated detraction <both candidates aspersed the other's motives>. vilify implies attempting to destroy a reputation by open and direct abuse <no criminal was more vilified in the press>. calumniate imputes malice to the speaker and falsity to the assertions <falsely calumniated as a traitor>. defame stresses the actual loss of or injury to one's good name <sued them for defaming her reputation>. slander stresses the suffering of the victim <town gossips slandered their good name>.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. & v. --adj. 1 (of a thing) injurious. 2 (of a disease) malignant. 3 malevolent. --v.tr. speak ill of; slander. Derivatives: maligner n. malignity n. (pl. -ies). malignly adv. Etymology: ME f. OF malin maligne, malignier f. LL malignare contrive maliciously f. L malignus f. malus bad: cf. BENIGN

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Malign Ma*lign", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Maligned; p. pr. & vb. n. Maligning.] [Cf. L. malignare. See Malign, a.] To treat with malice; to show hatred toward; to abuse; to wrong; to injure. [Obs.] The people practice what mischiefs and villainies they will against private men, whom they malign by stealing their goods, or murdering them. --Spenser. 2. To speak great evil of; to traduce; to defame; to slander; to vilify; to asperse. To be envied and shot at; to be maligned standing, and to be despised falling. --South.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Malign Ma*lign", a. [L. malignus, for maligenus, i. e., of a bad kind or nature; malus bad + the root of genus birth, race, kind: cf. F. malin, masc., maligne, fem. See Malice, Gender, and cf. Benign, Malignant.] 1. Having an evil disposition toward others; harboring violent enmity; malevolent; malicious; spiteful; -- opposed to benign. Witchcraft may be by operation of malign spirits. --Bacon. 2. Unfavorable; unpropitious; pernicious; tending to injure; as, a malign aspect of planets. 3. Malignant; as, a malign ulcer. [R.] --Bacon.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Malign Ma*lign", v. i. To entertain malice. [Obs.]

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(maligns, maligning, maligned) 1. If you malign someone, you say unpleasant and untrue things about them. (FORMAL) We maligned him dreadfully when you come to think of it... VERB: V n 2. If something is malign, it causes harm. (FORMAL) ...the malign influence jealousy had on their lives... = harmful ? benign ADJ: ADJ n 3. see also much-maligned

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. a. 1. Malicious, malevolent, malignant, ill-disposed. 2. Injurious, pernicious, unfavorable, baneful, very bad, unpropitious. II. v. a. Revile, slander, abuse, calumniate, asperse, defame, blacken, traduce, scandalize, disparage, vilify.

Moby Thesaurus

antagonistic, antipathetic, asperse, atrocious, backbite, bad-mouth, baleful, baneful, barbaric, barbarous, befoul, besmirch, bespatter, bestial, bitchy, blacken, bloody, blow upon, brutal, brutish, calumniate, cast aspersions on, cast reflections on, catching, communicable, contagious, corroding, corrosive, corrupting, corruptive, counterproductive, cussed, damaging, deadly, death-bringing, deathful, deathly, decry, defame, defile, deleterious, denigrate, depreciate, derogate, despiteful, destructive, detract, detrimental, disadvantageous, disparage, disserviceable, distressing, envenomed, evil, fatal, feral, ferine, ferocious, fierce, harmful, hateful, hostile, hurtful, infectious, infective, inhuman, inimical, iniquitous, injurious, internecine, invidious, kill-crazy, killing, lethal, libel, malefic, maleficent, malevolent, malicious, malignant, mean, mephitic, merciless, miasmal, miasmatic, miasmic, mischievous, mortal, murderous, nasty, noisome, noncivilized, noxious, ominous, ornery, pernicious, pestiferous, pestilential, pitiless, poisonous, pollute, prejudicial, rancorous, revile, ruthless, sanguinary, savage, scandal, scandalize, scatheful, slander, slur, smear, smirch, soil, spatter, spiteful, stain, sully, taint, tameless, tarnish, tear down, toxic, toxicant, toxiferous, traduce, uncivilized, ungentle, untamed, venenate, veneniferous, venenous, venomous, vicious, vilify, virulent, vituperate, wicked, wild