evil
adjectivenounadverbcommon in dialogue
- //ˈiːvəl//
- /[ˈɪi̯vəl] ~ [ˈɪi̯vl̩]/
- //ˈiːvɪl//
- /[ˈɪi̯vɪl]/
Intending to harm; malevolent.
adjective
- 1
Intending to harm; malevolent.
an evil plot to brainwash and even kill innocent people
For a good while the Miss Brownings were kept in ignorance of the evil tongues that whispered hard words about Molly.
He looked at her shapely person with something of the brazen and evil glance that had been so revolting to her in the eyes of those ruffians.
2006, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Wizard of the Crow, New York: Pantheon, Book Three, Section II, Chapter 3, p. 351, “Before this, I never had any cause to suspect my wife of any conspiracy.” “You mean it never crossed your mind that she might have been told to whisper evil thoughts in your ear at night?”
- 2
Morally corrupt.
If something is evil, it is never mandatory.
Do you think that companies that engage in animal testing are evil?
Ah, what a sign it is of evil life, When death’s approach is seen so terrible.
I had much trouble at first in breaking him of those evil habits his father had taught him to acquire […]
- 3
Unpleasant, foul (of odor, taste, mood, weather, etc.).
He awoke in an evil temper […]
1937, Robert Byron, The Road to Oxiana, London: Macmillan, Part V, “Mazar-i-Sherif,” p. 282, It was an evil day, sticky and leaden: Oxiana looked as colourless and suburban as India.
He herded them into a small and evil toilet and then through a window.
Everyone in the tiny, crowded, hot, and evil-smelling kitchen […] has been invited to participate in a moment of history.
- 4
Producing or threatening sorrow, distress, injury, or calamity; unpropitious; calamitous.
The owl shrieked at thy birth,—an evil sign;
[…] he hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel:
A little stay will bring some notice hither, For evil news rides post, while good news baits.
“[…] with bandits and robbers roving over the land in these evil times of famine and war, how can it be said that this one or that stole anything? Hunger makes thief of any man.”
- 5
obsoleteHaving harmful qualities; not good; worthless or deleterious.
an evil beast; an evil plant; an evil crop
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit.
- 6
slangUndesirable; harmful; bad practice.
Global variables are evil; storing processing context in object member variables allows those objects to be reused in a much more flexible way.
Etymology
From Middle English yvel, evel, ivel, uvel, from Old English yfel, from Proto-West Germanic *ubil, from Proto-Germanic *ubilaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂up(h₁)élos, a deverbal derivative of *h₂wep(h₁)-, *h₂wop(h₁)- (“treat badly”). See -le for the supposed suffix. Alternatively from *upélos (“evil”, literally “going over or beyond (acceptable limits)”), from Proto-Indo-European *upo, *h₃ewp- (“down, up, over”). Cognates Cognate with Dutch euvel (“evil”), German übel (“bad, evil”), German Low German övel (“evil”), Luxembourgish iwwel (“queasy, nauseous; bad”), Gothic 𐌿𐌱𐌹𐌻𐍃 (ubils, “bad, evil”). Compare Old Irish fel (“bad, evil”), from Proto-Celtic *uɸelos, and Hittite 𒄷𒉿𒀊𒍣 (huwapp-ⁱ, “to mistreat, harass”), 𒄷𒉿𒀊𒉺𒀸 (huwappa-, “evil, badness”).
noun
- 1
Moral badness; wickedness; malevolence; the forces or behaviors that are the opposite or enemy of good.
The evils of society include murder and theft.
Evil lacks spirituality, hence its need for mind control.
The heart of the sons of men is full of evil.
The preposterous altruism too![…]Resist not evil. It is an insane immolation of self—as bad intrinsically as fakirs stabbing themselves or anchorites warping their spines in caves scarcely large enough for a fair-sized dog.
- 2
Something which impairs the happiness of a being or deprives a being of any good; something which causes suffering of any kind to sentient beings; harm; injury; mischief.
evils which our own misdeeds have wrought
The evil that men do lives after them.
- 3
obsoleteA malady or disease; especially in combination, as in king's evil, colt evil.
[The disease]Tis call'd the Euill.
He [Edward the Confessor] was the first that touched for the evil.
adverb
- 1
obsoletewickedly, evilly, iniquitously
O what of Gods then boots it to be borne, / If old Aveugles ſonnes ſo euill heare?
- 2
obsoleteinjuriously, harmfully; in a damaging way.
And many ſhall follow their pernicious wayes, by reaſon of whom the way of trueth ſhall be euill ſpoken of:
- 3
obsoletebadly, poorly; in an insufficient way.
It went evil with him.
But (as the Poet ſaith) Malè ſarta gratia, nequicquam coit, & reſcinditur: Friendſhip, that is but euill peeced, will not ioine cloſe, but falleth aſunder againe:
Etymology
From Middle English yvele, yvel, ivel, from Old English yfele (“badly, evilly”), a derivative of the adjective yfel (“bad, evil”). Often reinterpreted as the noun in the later language (as in "to speak evil").
Forms
- plural
- evils
- comparative
- eviller, eviler, more evil
- superlative
- evillest, evilest, most evil