wicked
adjectiveadverbnounverbadjectiveadjectivecommon in dialogue
- Australia//ˈwɪk.ɪd//
- Australia//wɪkt//
- New Zealand//ˈwək.əd//
- New Zealand//wəkt//
- //ˈwɪkɪd//
Evil or mischievous by nature; morally reprehensible.
adjective
- 1
Evil or mischievous by nature; morally reprehensible.
Genuine cowards follow wicked people and cannot reliably sustain any virtue.
The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bolde as a lyon.
“Yes,” replied she; “and the saddest part of it all is that she is not marrying the man she loves. Oh, it is terrible. Marrying from a sense of duty! I think it is perfectly wicked, and I told her so.”
‘[…] I remember a lady coming to inspect St. Mary's Home where I was brought up and seeing us all in our lovely Elizabethan uniforms we were so proud of, and bursting into tears all over us because “it was wicked to dress us like charity children”.[…]’.
- 2
Harsh; severe.
wicked wind
- 3
slangExcellent; awesome; masterful; exceptional.
That was a wicked guitar solo, bro!
Etymology
From Middle English wicked, wikked, an alteration of Middle English wicke, wikke (“morally perverse, evil, wicked”). Of uncertain origin. Possibly from an adjectival use of Old English wiċċa (“wizard, sorcerer”), from Proto-West Germanic *wikkō (“necromancer, sorcerer”), though the phonology makes this theory difficult to explain. Alternatively, perhaps related to English wicker, Old Norse víkja (“to bend to, yield, turn, move”), Swedish vika (“to bend, fold, give way to”), English weak. The "excellent, awesome" sense is an ameliorative semantic shift from the original sense of "evil, mischievous". Compare similar semantic development in terrific and sick.
adverb
- 1
archaicTo a superlative extent, very, extremely
I didn't really wanna go see On Golden Pond with the fam, but my mom made me go, and I must say that in retrospect it was a wicked expressive film, with a lot of significant meaning.
The band we went to see the other night was pissah, and they were wicked loud!
James: It looks like you're wearing earrings also. Those are really something. Those aren't too heavy, are they? / Sonia: No, they're actually, like, wicked light.
noun
- 1
Wicked (evil) people collectively.
And goodness knows the wicked's lives are lonely / Goodness knows the wicked die alone
verb
- 1
Also a form of wicksimple past and past participle of wick
Etymology
See wick.
adjective
- 1
Having a wick.
a two-wicked lamp
Up went Moggy, with her thick-wicked kitchen candle, to seek repose; […]
adjective
- 1
obsoleteActive; brisk.
- 2
Infested with maggots.
- 3
Variant of wickAlternative form of wick, as applying to inanimate objects only.
Forms
- plural
- the wicked
- comparative
- wickeder, more wicked
- superlative
- wickedest, most wicked
wicked · Evil or mischievous by nature; morally reprehensible.
wide · Having a large physical extent from side to side.widely · In a wide manner; across a wide area.widespread · Affecting, or found throughout, a large area (e.g. the entire…