Evil
Pronunciation
- enPR: Ä“-vÉ™l, IPA: /ˈiËvÉ™l/, /ˈiËvɪl/
- Rhymes: -iËvÉ™l
Origin
From Old English yfel, from Proto-Germanic *ubilaz (compare East Frisian eeuwel, Dutch euvel, German übel), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂upélos, diminutive of *h₂wep- ("treat badly") (compare Hittite huwappi 'to mistreat, harass', huwappa 'evil, badness')., or alternatively from *upélos ("evil", literally going over or beyond (acceptable limits)), from Proto-Indo-European *upo, *up, *eup ("down, up, over").
Full definition of evil
Adjective
evil
- Intending to harm; malevolent.Do you think that companies that engage in animal testing are evil?
- Morally corrupt.an evil plot to kill innocent people
- ShakespeareAh, what a sign it is of evil life,
When death's approach is seen so terrible. - Unpleasant.
- Producing or threatening sorrow, distress, injury, or calamity; unpropitious; calamitous.
- Bible, Deuteronomy xxii. 19He hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel.
- ShakespeareThe owl shrieked at thy birth — an evil sign.
- MiltonEvil news rides post, while good news baits.
- (obsolete) Having harmful qualities; not good; worthless or deleterious.an evil beast; an evil plant; an evil crop
- Bible, Matthew vii. 18A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit.
- (computing, programming, slang) undesirable; harmful; bad practiceGlobal variables are evil; storing processing context in object member variables allows those objects to be reused in a much more flexible way.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Derived terms
Noun
evil
(countable and uncountable; plural evils)- Moral badness; wickedness; malevolence; the forces or behaviors that are the opposite or enemy of good.
- Bible, Ecclesiastes. ix. 3The heart of the sons of men is full of evil.
- 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 16, 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.
- The evils of society include murder and theft.Evil lacks spirituality, hence its need for mind control.
- Anything which impairs the happiness of a being or deprives a being of any good; anything which causes suffering of any kind to sentient beings; injury; mischief; harm.
- John Miltonevils which our own misdeeds have wrought
- William ShakespeareThe evil that men do lives after them.
- (obsolete) A malady or disease; especially in the phrase king's evil (scrofula).
- AddisonHe the Confessor was the first that touched for the evil.