Synonyms for vicious
- atrocious
- barbarous
- cruel
- dangerous
- depraved
- diabolical
- ferocious
- heinous
- infamous
- monstrous
- nefarious
- perverse
- savage
- vile
- violent
- wicked
- abandoned
- abhorrent
- bad
- base
- contaminated
- debased
- degenerate
- degraded
- demoralized
- faulty
- fiendish
- flagitious
- foul
- immoral
- impious
- impure
- indecent
- iniquitous
- insubordinate
- lewd
- libidinous
- licentious
- miscreant
- profligate
- putrid
- reprehensible
- reprobate
- rotten
- sinful
- unprincipled
- untamed
- villainous
- wild
- worthless
Antonyms for vicious
- calm
- civilized
- gentle
- glorious
- good
- honorable
- innocent
- kind
- mild
- moral
- nice
- pure
- respectable
- tame
- virtuous
- friendly
- pleasant
- right
EXAMPLES FROM THE WEB FOR VICIOUS
But can the safety of the state be secured by merely excluding the vicious poor?
The fatuity of vicious and coroneted youth outstripped his discretion.
Our steward was a Portuguese negro, of the most vicious and surly temper.
Of all classes of our population the most vicious is that of the free colored.
But Heman had climbed into the pung, and given Old Gameleg a vicious cut.
The fingers of the knitting women were vicious, with the experience that they could tear.
That is, vicious pronounciations in regard to their Irish brogues.
Mosquitoes, it seemed to me, were never so numerous or vicious as after this thunderstorm.
A vicious kick given to a stone on the lawn emphasized the remark.
Into his snarl he incorporated all that was vicious, malignant, and horrible.
WORD ORIGIN
early 14c. (implied in viciously), "of the nature of vice, wicked," from Anglo-French vicious, Old French vicieus, from Latin vitiosus "faulty, defective, corrupt," from vitium "fault" (see vice (n.1)). Meaning "inclined to be savage or dangerous" is first recorded 1711 (originally of animals, especially horses); that of "full of spite, bitter, severe" is from 1825. In law, "marred by some inherent fault" (late 14c.), hence also this sense in logic (c.1600); cf. vicious circle in reasoning (c.1792, Latin circulus vitiosus), which was given a general sense of "a situation in which action and reaction intensify one another" by 1839.