Adjacent Words

Malignant definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

MALIG'NANT, a. [L. malignus,maligno, from malus, evil.]
1. Malicious; having extreme malevolence or enmity; as a malignant heart.
2. Unpropitious; exerting pernicious influence; as malignant start.
3. Virulent; as a malignant ulcer.
4. Dangerous to life; as a malignant fever.
5. Extremely heinous; as the malignant nature of sin.
MALIG'NANT, n. A man of extreme enmity or evil intentions. [Not used.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: dangerous to health; characterized by progressive and uncontrolled growth (especially of a tumor) [ant: benign]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Late Latin malignant-, malignans, present participle of malignari Date: circa 1545 1. a. obsolete malcontent, disaffected b. evil in nature, influence, or effect ; injurious c. passionately and relentlessly malevolent ; aggressively malicious 2. tending to produce death or deterioration <malignant malaria>; especially tending to infiltrate, metastasize, and terminate fatally <a malignant tumor> • malignantly adverb

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 a (of a disease) very virulent or infectious (malignant cholera). b (of a tumour) tending to invade normal tissue and recur after removal; cancerous. 2 harmful; feeling or showing intense ill will. Phrases and idioms: malignant pustule a form of anthrax. Derivatives: malignancy n. (pl. -ies). malignantly adv. Etymology: LL malignare (as MALIGN)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Sore Sore, a. [Compar. Sorer; superl. Sorest.] [OE. sor, sar, AS. s[=a]r; akin to D. zeer, OS. & OHG. s?r, G. sehr very, Icel. s[=a]rr, Sw. s[*a]r, Goth. sair pain. Cf. Sorry.] 1. Tender to the touch; susceptible of pain from pressure; inflamed; painful; -- said of the body or its parts; as, a sore hand. 2. Fig.: Sensitive; tender; easily pained, grieved, or vexed; very susceptible of irritation. Malice and hatred are very fretting and vexatious, and apt to make our minds sore and uneasy. --Tillotson. 3. Severe; afflictive; distressing; as, a sore disease; sore evil or calamity. --Shak. 4. Criminal; wrong; evil. [Obs.] --Shak. Sore throat (Med.), inflammation of the throat and tonsils; pharyngitis. See Cynanche. Malignant, Ulcerated or Putrid, sore throat. See Angina, and under Putrid.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Malignant Ma*lig"nant, n. 1. A man of extrems enmity or evil intentions. --Hooker. 2. (Eng. Hist.) One of the adherents of Charles L. or Charles LL.; -- so called by the opposite party.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Malignant Ma*lig"nant, a. [L. malignans, -antis, p. pr. of malignare, malignari, to do or make maliciously. See Malign, and cf. Benignant.] 1. Disposed to do harm, inflict suffering, or cause distress; actuated by extreme malevolence or enmity; virulently inimical; bent on evil; malicious. A malignant and a turbaned Turk. --Shak. 2. Characterized or caused by evil intentions; pernicious. ``Malignant care.'' --Macaulay. Some malignant power upon my life. --Shak. Something deleterious and malignant as his touch. --Hawthorne. 3. (Med.) Tending to produce death; threatening a fatal issue; virulent; as, malignant diphtheria. Malignant pustule (Med.), a very contagious disease, transmitted to man from animals, characterized by the formation, at the point of reception of the virus, of a vesicle or pustule which first enlarges and then breaks down into an unhealthy ulcer. It is marked by profound exhaustion and usually fatal. Called also charbon, and sometimes, improperly, anthrax.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. A malignant tumour or disease is out of control and likely to cause death. (MEDICAL) She developed a malignant breast tumour. ? benign ADJ: usu ADJ n 2. If you say that someone is malignant, you think they are cruel and like to cause harm. He said that we were evil, malignant and mean. ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Malign, malicious, malevolent, bitter, rancorous, spiteful, resentful, envious, virulently inimical. 2. Unpropitious, unfavorable, ill-boding. 3. Extremely heinous, virulent, pernicious. 4. (Med.) Dangerous, fatal, virulent.

Moby Thesaurus

acrid, allergic, anemic, antagonistic, antipathetic, apoplectic, arthritic, atrocious, baleful, baneful, barbaric, barbarous, belligerent, bestial, bilious, bitchy, bitter, bloody, brutal, brutish, cancerous, catching, caustic, chlorotic, clashing, colicky, colliding, communicable, conflicting, consumptive, contagious, corroding, corrosive, corrupting, corruptive, counterproductive, cussed, damaging, deadly, death-bringing, deathful, deathly, deleterious, despiteful, destructive, detrimental, devilish, diabolical, disadvantageous, disserviceable, distressing, dropsical, dyspeptic, edematous, encephalitic, envenomed, epileptic, evil, fatal, feral, ferine, ferocious, fiendish, fierce, full of hate, harmful, hateful, hostile, hurtful, infectious, infective, inhuman, iniquitous, injurious, internecine, invidious, kill-crazy, killing, laryngitic, leprous, lethal, luetic, malarial, malefic, maleficent, malevolent, malicious, malign, mean, measly, mephitic, merciless, miasmal, miasmatic, miasmic, mischievous, mortal, murderous, nasty, nephritic, neuralgic, neuritic, noisome, noncivilized, noxious, ominous, ornery, palsied, paralytic, pernicious, pestiferous, pestilential, phthisic, pitiless, pleuritic, pneumonic, pocky, podagric, poisonous, prejudicial, quarrelsome, rachitic, rancorous, repugnant, rheumatic, rickety, ruthless, sanguinary, savage, scatheful, scorbutic, scrofulous, set against, sore, spiteful, tabetic, tabid, tameless, toxic, toxicant, toxiferous, tubercular, tuberculous, tumorigenic, tumorous, uncivilized, ungentle, untamed, venenate, veneniferous, venenous, venomous, vicious, virulent, vitriolic, wicked, wild