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MALEVOLENT
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Having or exerting a malignant influence
Example:
a malefic force
Synonyms:
evil; malefic; malevolent; malign
Classified under:
Similar:
maleficent (harmful or evil in intent or effect)
Derivation:
malevolence; malevolency (the quality of threatening evil)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Wishing or appearing to wish evil to others; arising from intense ill will or hatred
Example:
failure made him malevolent toward those who were successful
Classified under:
Similar:
malicious (having the nature of or resulting from malice)
Derivation:
malevolence (wishing evil to others)
Context examples:
No foot-mark showed a trace of its nature, and only the overhanging branch of the enormous ginko tree suggested how it might have come and gone; but of its malevolent strength there was ample evidence in the condition of our stores.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
That there might also prove to be human occupants and that they were of a malevolent character was suggested by the skeleton impaled upon the bamboos, which could not have got there had it not been dropped from above.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
