Superlative for extremely cruel or violent in nature or character
“The wretched inhabitants suffered all the horrors of war and famine from the vicious tyrant.”
Superlative for very immoral or evil in nature or character
“The editor's footnote had further portrayed him as a vicious and immoral man who pursued his selfish gains by poisoning his countrymen.”
Superlative for spiteful or malevolent in nature or manner
“He wrote, under the pen name of Coriolanus, a vicious rebuke to the emancipationists.”
Superlative for having a very gloomy or ill-tempered expression or demeanor
“Startled, he backed away from the creature's vicious countenance.”
Superlative for high in tension or levels of conflict
“On one occasion, he was involved in a vicious argument with his neighbor and had urinated on the neighbor's fence.”
Superlative for extremely or frighteningly bad or serious
“Second-place starter Fireball Roberts was involved in a vicious accident on lap #113.”
Superlative for causing, or resulting in, injury or death
“Ladislaus left Rome, struck with a vicious disease, rumored to be due to poison administered by an apothecary's daughter of Perugia.”
Superlative for uncouth, not socially or culturally refined
“Place the infant scion of royalty itself under the unrequited care of a poverty-stricken, vicious and degraded outcast, and that child of proud lineage will grow up a squalid, vicious and uncouth clown.”
Superlative for wild or feral, having not been domesticated
“Keeping a vicious animal in captivity is not always in the best interests of the animal.”
Superlative for significant or extreme in degree or intensity
“I stood beneath the trees, taking refuge from the vicious heat under their lush green canopies.”
Superlative for extremely difficult or challenging to endure
“Even while servants were treated as inanimate and the poor lived in vicious conditions, animals and children became the focus of reform movements.”
Superlative for requiring great effort or exertion
“Driving across the compound to the old part of the neighborhood proved a vicious task for a man who had incoherent flashbacks of his past that no one else knew about.”
Related Words and Phrases
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