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Malicious

1. Indulging or exercising malice; harboring ill will or enmity. I grant him bloody, . . . Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin That has a name. (Shak)

2. Proceeding from hatred or ill will; dictated by malice; as, a malicious report; malicious mischief.

3. With wicked or mischievous intentions or motives; wrongful and done intentionally without just cause or excuse; as, a malicious act. Malicious abandonment, the desertion of a wife or husband without just cause. Malicious mischief, a wanton prosecution or arrest, by regular process in a civil or criminal proceeding, without probable cause.

Synonym: ill-disposed, evil-minded, mischievous, envious, malevolent, invidious, spiteful, bitter, malignant, rancorous, malign.

Maliciously, Maliciousness.

Origin: Of. Malicius, f. Malicieux, fr. L. Malitiosus. See malice.