Vicious

a. Forms: α. 4– vicious (5–6 -ouse, 6 Sc. -us), 4 vecyous, 6 vicyous, Sc. wicious; 5–6 vycious(e, vycyous (5 -owse, 6 -ouse), 5 vysyous; 4–5 viciose (4 vycios). β. 5–6 vitius, 6–8 (9) vitious (6 -ouse). [a. AF. vicious, OF. vicious (vitious), vicieus (F. vicieux, = Sp. and Pg. vicioso, It. vizioso), or ad. L. vitiōsus (med.L. also viciōsus), f. vitium fault, VICE sb.¹]

  I.  1. Or habits, practices, etc.: Of the nature of vice; contrary to moral principles; depraved, immoral, bad.

  α.  c. 1340.  Hampole, Prose Tr., 15. Righte als before þe lykynges in þe sensualite ware fleschely, vayne, and vecyous…, righte so now þay ere made gastely, and clene.

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 430. Þe mor part of men, bi her viciose lijf, ben combred in þis heresye.

1390.  Gower, Conf., III. 111. He is so ferforth Amourous, He not what thing is vicious Touchende love.

c. 1420.  Lydg., Assembly of Gods, 2097. From hys gloryous syght thus he vs estraungeth, For our vycyous lyuyng, thorough owre owne foly.

c. 1430.  Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 70. O loode-sterre of al goode governaunce! Alle vicious lustes by wisdom to represse.

1535–6.  Act 27 Hen. VIII., c. 28 § 1. Ther [sc. monks’] vycyous lyvyng shamelesly encreasseth & augmentith.

1555.  Eden, Decades (Arb.), 53. Dissolute lyuynge, licentious talke, and such other vicious behauoures.

1613.  Purchas, Pilgrimage, IV. ix. (1614), 391. Richard Johnson caused the English, by his vicious liuing, to bee worse accounted of then the Russes.

1690.  Locke, Hum. Und., II. xxi. § 45. He … who prefers the short pleasures of a vicious Life upon any consideration.

1736.  Butler, Anal., I. iii. Wks. 1874, I. 54. Vicious actions, considered as mischievous to society, should be punished.

1791.  Mrs. Radcliffe, Rom. Forest, viii. The Marquis pursuing her with insult and vicious passion.

1838.  Thirlwall, Greece, V. xliii. 249. Interpreted by his enemies as a proof of unmanly luxury and vicious habits.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), IV. 13. Plato attempts to identily vicious pleasures with some form of error.

  β.  1535.  Stewart, Cron. Scot. (Rolls), II. 426. How Donaldus … wes crownit King of Scottis, and of his vitius Lyfe.

1585.  T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy., I. xviii. 21. [He] changed his good maners and vertues into most vitious tyrannies.

1621.  Burton, Anat. Mel., I. i. II. xi. 45. Thence come … many times vitious Habits, customes, ferall Diseases.

c. 1670.  Hobbes, Dial. Com. Laws (1681), 7. How can a man be indicted of Avarice, Envy, Hypocrisie or any other vitious Habit till it be declared?

1700.  Prior, Carmen Seculare, xxxiv. Some [Societies] that to Morals shall recal the Age, And purge from vitious Dross the sinking Stage.

a. 1763.  Shenstone, Elegies, xv. 54. To fire with vitious hopes a modest heir.

1791.  Burke, Lett. to Memb. Nat. Assembly, 32. Though his practical and speculative morals were vitious in the extreme.

1817.  Jas. Mill, Brit. India, II. V. ii. 370. His conduct was vitious and weak.

  2.  Of persons: Addicted to vice or immorality; of depraved habits; profligate, wicked.

  α.  c. 1386.  Chaucer, Monk’s T., 473. Alþouhe Nero were as vicious As fende þat liþe ful lowe adoune.

c. 1400.  Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton, 1483), IV. xxxv. 83. Vpon theues and morderers,… mysprowde men and vicious they shalle be fyers in jugement.

c. 1450.  Mirk’s Festial, 253. For yche good man ys love forto be yn company wyth a vycyous man.

1483.  Rolls of Parlt., VI. 240/2. Personnes insolent, vicious, and of inordinate avarice.

a. 1548.  Hall, Chron., Hen. V., 33 b. A vicious prince doth muche more hurte with his pernicious example to other then to hymself by his peculier offence.

1598.  Barckley, Felic. Man, V. 518. Such as he found rich & vicious, he would depriue them from the Senate.

1613.  Purchas, Pilgrimage, VIII. iv. 629. He saith, that the Armouchiquois are a great people, but haue no adoration. They are vicious and bloudie.

1652.  Loveday, trans. Calprenede’s Cassandra, III. 161. I have known indeed many of the viciousest persons lead a long life with sweetnesse and contentment.

1729.  Butler, Serm., Wks. 1874, II. 22. Mankind is in this sense naturally vicious, or vicious by nature.

1766.  Fordyce, Serm. to Yng. Wm. (1767), I. i. 10. There are foolish and vicious women.

1793.  Holcroft, trans. Lavater’s Physiog., xxxi. 164. Vicious men resemble valuable paintings which have been destroyed by varnish.

1813.  Shelley, Q. Mab, VII. 124. Every soul on this ungrateful earth, Virtuous or vicious,… Shall perish.

1862.  Thackeray, Philip, v. I know his haunts, but I don’t know his friends, Pendennis…. I don’t think they are vicious, so much as low.

1874.  Green, Short Hist., ix. § 1. 589. Vicious as the stage was, it only reflected the general vice of the time.

  β.  c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 527. Voidis me noght of vitius,… Ne deme no dishonesty in your derfe hert.

1562.  Winȝet, Wks. (S.T.S.), I. 44. He causis sumtyme vitious or tyrane princes … to haue dominioun aboue vs.

1596.  Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., I. 161. Jn the beginning of his regyne a gude Prince, eftirwarde vitious.

1628.  Burton, Anat. Mel. (ed. 3), II. iii. VII. 330. Themistocles … was a most deboshed and vitious youth.

1660.  Milton, Free Commw., Wks. 1851, V. 451. Monarchs … whose Aim is to make the People wealthy,… but otherwise softest, basest, vitiousest, servilest.

1678.  L’Estrange, Seneca’s Mor. (1702), 178. Drunkenness … does not make Men Vitious but it shews them to be so.

1755.  Young, Centaur, iv. Wks. 1757, IV. 200. My less vitious companions fell frequent around me; and dismal was their fall.

  † b.  Const. of. Obs.

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Boeth., II. pr. v. 47. Þe whiche seruauntes yif þei ben vicious of condiciouns it is a greet charge and a destruccioun to þe house.

1453.  Coventry Leet Bk., 278. Yf eny officers fro this tyme forward be founde vicious of his body, that then he be put oute of his office in eny wise.

1460.  Capgrave, Chron., 116. He was vicious of lyvyng, a hunter outeragious.

1530.  Palsgr., 328. Vyciouse of conversacyon.

1557.  North, trans. Gueuara’s Diall Pr., Prol. A j b. The man that is vitious of his personne … deserveth to be banished.

1577.  Holinshed, Chron., II. 1556/1. Some Princes basterd,… high minded, full of reuenge, vitious of his body.

  c.  absol. with the.

1390.  Gower, Conf., III. 226. He putte awey the vicious And tok to him the vertuous.

1536.  G. Wishart, in Misc. Wodrow Soc., 18. And by all meanes compell and reproue the faultie and vicious.

a. 1581.  Campion, Hist. Irel., v. (1633), 13. In which vertue … how far the best excell, so farre in gluttonie and other hatefull crimes the vitious … are worse then too badde.

1673.  O. Walker, Educ. (1677), 220. Most men have greater averseness to the incompliant than the vitious.

1711.  Addison, Spect., No. 16, ¶ 3. If I attack the Vicious, I shall only set upon them in a Body.

1782.  V. Knox, Ess., xii. (1819), I. 71. With the vicious you must be vicious.

a. 1805.  H. K. White, Mel. Hours, ix. She … has found, by bitter experience, that the vicious … are devoid of all feeling but that of self-gratification.

1863.  Biogr. Sk. E. Fry, 72. Her example of devotedness, in the care of the wretched and vicious, was emulated with blessed effect.

  d.  The vicious one, ? the Evil One. rare^–1.

1713.  Shaftesb., Judgm. Hercules, i. § 2. He is wrought, agitated, and torn by contrary Passions. ’Tis the last Effort of the vitious-one, striving for possession over him.

  3.  Falling short of, or varying from, what is morally or practically commendable; reprehensible, blameworthy, mischievous.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Melib., ¶ 18. He that is irous and wroth … may not speke but blameful thinges, and with his vicious wordes he stireth other folk to anger and to ire.

1500–20.  Dunbar, Poems, xviii. 38. Thair vicious wordis and vanitie, Thair tratling tungis.

1531.  Elyot, Gov., III. xxii. (1880), II. 346. All thoughe I dispraysed nygarshippe and vicious scarcitie,… I desyre nat to haue … meates for any occasion to moche sumptuous.

1575.  Gascoigne, Glasse of Govt., Wks. 1910, II. 45. To bee opinionate of him selfe is vitious.

a. 1578.  Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.), I. 47. James … thinkand it was wicious to denude the auld herietaig of ane house [etc.].

1611.  Shaks., Cymb., V. v. 65. It had beene vicious To haue mistrusted her.

1648.  Milton, Tenure Kings (1651), 1. Being slaves within doors, no wonder they strive to have the State govern’d conformably to the inward vitious rule, by which they govern themselves.

1692.  Prior, Ode Imit. Horace, ii. See the Repenting Isle Awakes, Her Vicious Chains the generous Goddess breaks.

1751.  Johnson, Rambler, No. 159, ¶ 7. A timidity which he himself knows to be vicious.

1780.  Cowper, Lett., 18 March. The love of power seems as natural to kings as the desire of liberty is to their subjects, the excess of either is vicious and tends to the ruin of both.

1825.  Jefferson, Autob., Wks. 1859, I. 36. Our legislation, under the regal government, had many very vicious points.

1845.  M’Culloch, Taxation, I. iv. 115. We look upon every system of taxation as radically vicious that sets the interest and the duty of individuals at variance.

1879.  Harlan, Eyesight, viii. 107. Young people often acquire the vicious habit of reading with the book held close to the eyes.

  † b.  Of a person: Holding faulty or wrong opinions. Obs.

1657.  Trapp, Comm. Ps. v. 26. Pope John 22 held the mortality of the soule, and was otherwise erroneous and vitious.

  4.  Of animals (esp. horses): Inclined to be savage or dangerous, or to show bad temper; not submitting to be thoroughly tamed or broken-in.

  In quot. 1720 in fig. context, referring to persons.

1711.  Shaftesb., Charac., II. 30. Tho we may vulgarly call an ill Horse vitious; yet we never say of a good-one,… that he is worthy or virtuous.

1720.  Swift, Fates Clergymen, ¶ 9. People in power may … drive them through the hardest and deepest roads … and will be sure to find them neither resty nor vicious.

1774.  Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), II. 363. Those [horses] naturally belonging to the country, are very small and vicious. Ibid., IV. 319. Although in its native wildness, it is said to be fierce and vicious, this [nylghau] seemed pleased with every kind of familiarity.

1818.  Ranken, Hist. France, IV. IV. iii. 267. A vicious animal, having injured any person, was forfeited.

1865.  M. Arnold, Ess. Crit., vi. 195. Look at that bay horse rearing bolt upright; what a vicious one!

1892.  J. A. Henderson, Annals Lower Deeside, 156. Philip, being flung by a vicious horse, likewise succumbed.

  transf.  1814.  Ld. J. Russell, in Sir S. Walpole, Life (1889), I. iii. 75. He [Napoleon] has a dusky grey eye, which would be called vicious in a horse.

  b.  Full of malice or spite; malignantly bitter or severe.

1825.  Jennings, Dial. W. Eng., Vitious, spiteful, revengeful.

1859.  Tennyson, Marriage of Geraint, 194. The dwarf,… being vicious, old and irritable,… Made answer sharply that she should not know.

1908.  G. Tyrrell, in Petre, Life (1912), II. xvii. 348. Three nasty vicious letters against the poor Baron in the Tablet.

  c.  transf. Of weather: Severe, inclement.

1882.  Jamieson’s Sc. Dict., IV. 695/2. Vitious weather.

1902.  J. Buchan, Watcher by Threshold, 81. The weather seemed more vicious than ever.

  II.  5. Law. Marred, or rendered void, by some inherent fault or defect; not satisfying legal requirements or conditions; unlawful, illegal.

1393.  in Collect. Topographica (1836), III. 257. To ensele the same forsaid vicious fenyd chartre.

c. 1555.  Harpsfield, Divorce Hen. VIII. (1878), 44. The act being vicious and nought at the beginning, cannot be by tract of time confirmed.

1561.  Reg. Privy Council Scot., I. 174. I ressavit the gudis libellit immediatlie fra the saidis Cantis eftir the spoliatioun thairof, knawing the same to be spulyeit and vicious.

1765.  H. Walpole, Otranto, iii. I have consented to put my title to the issue of the sword—does that imply a vitious title?

1880.  Muirhead, Gaius, IV. § 151. Nor can there be any accession in favour of a party whose own possession is vitious, i.e. acquired from his opponent violently, clandestinely, or in defiance of the recal of a grant during pleasure. Ibid., 513. In the ordinary case it was lawful to use force to eject a vitious possessor.

  b.  Vicious intromission, intromitter (see quot. 1838 and INTROMISSION 2). Scots Law.

1678.  Sir G. Mackenzie, Crim. Laws Scot., I. xix. § 12 (1699), 102. If it be proved that he was actually denuded, that will liberat him from vitious intromission.

1696.  [see INTROMITTER].

1747.  in Nairne Peerage Evid. (1874), 149. Universal and vitious intromitters with his goods and gear.

1765–9.  Erskine, Inst. Law Scot., III. ix. § 49. Though vitious intromission be a delict, it may be referred to oath. Ibid., § 52. Before he be cited by any creditor as a vitious intromitter.

1838.  W. Bell, Dict. Law Scot., 529. The term vitious intromission is applied exclusively to the heir’s unwarrantable intromission with the moveable estate of the ancestor.

a. 1856.  G. Outram, Lyrics (1887), 95 (E.D.D.). I then attempted Vitious Intromission, And was immediately conveyed to prison. Ibid., 216. Vitious Intromitter.

  6.  Impaired or spoiled by some fault, flaw, blemish or defect; faulty, defective, imperfect, bad; corrupt, impure, debased: a. Of language, style, spelling, etc. Also transf. of writers.

1589.  Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, III. xxi. (Arb.), 256. It hath bene said before how … a good figure may become a vice, and … a vicious speach go for a vertue in the Poeticall science.

1638.  R. Baker, trans. Balzac’s Lett. (vol. II.), 208. He shall have the honour to purge his country of a vitious phrase.

1655.  Vaughan, Silex Scint., I. Pref. The complaint against vitious verse … is of some antiquity in this kingdom.

1695.  H. Wharton, in Laud’s Wks. (1853), V. 371. Although the orthography be vicious (a matter common to many learned men of that time).

1711.  Shaftesb., Charac., I. 145. Whatever Quarter we may give to our vicious Poets, or other Composers of irregular and short-liv’d Works.

1841.  W. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., I. 141. His mode of writing was vicious, rhetorical, antithetical, and forced.

1883.  D. H. Wheeler, By-Ways Lit., 100. It is believed that the Welsh-Keltic manuscripts are unusually vicious in the texts.

  b.  Logic. Of arguments, etc.

1605.  Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. xiii. § 3. 50. The Induction which the Logitians speake of;… their fourme of induction I say is vtterly vitious and incompetent.

1646.  Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., I. iv. 16. If this fallacy be largely taken, it is committed in any vitious illation, offending the rules of good consequence.

1697.  trans. Burgersdicius his Logic, II. viii. 40. If from true premisses follows what is false, it is a sign that the form of the syllogism is vitious.

1774.  Reid, Aristotle’s Logic, v. § 1. 219. The form [of syllogisms] lies in the necessary connection between the premises and the conclusion; and where such a connection is wanting, they are said to be informal, or vicious in point of form.

1856.  P. E. Dove, Logic Christian Faith, V. i. 290. We have … departed from the region of mind and spirit and introduced the natural method where the natural method is utterly vicious and illegitimate.

1864.  Bowen, Logic, vii. 189. It is not difficult to prove … that arguments are vicious only when they fail to observe this method, and are always good when it is observed.

  c.  In general use.

1638.  Junius, Paint. Ancients, 228. The uttermost on either side is vicious.

1650.  Bulwer, Anthropomet., 4. A vitious figure of the head is known by sight.

1726.  Leoni, trans. Alberti’s Archit., II. 90 b. Rightly supposing that the truth must lie in some medium between these two vitious extremes.

1746.  Francis, trans. Hor., Sat., II. iii. 35. Here the rude chizzel’s rougher strokes I trac’d; In flowing brass a vicious hardness found.

1846.  Art Union Jrnl., Oct., 285. The foundations of the bridge were originally vicious.

1855.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xxi. IV. 611. A wooden model of that edifice, the finest specimen of a vicious style, was sent to Kensington for his inspection.

1880.  Fraser’s Mag., May, 672. Thus the country’s money becomes thoroughly vicious: it breaks down in its most essential quality.

  † d.  Of a person: Wrong, mistaken. Obs.

1604.  Shaks., Oth., III. iii. 145. Though I perchance am vicious in my guesse.

  7.  Foul, impure, noxious, morbid. ? Obs.

1597.  Gerarde, Herbal, III. xxxv. 1168. Berries … full of clammie or vicious moisture.

1608.  Topsell, Serpents, 188. Theyr liuer is very vitious, and causeth the whole body to be of ill temperament.

1641.  Milton, Reform., 55. Thou … that art but a bottle of vitious and harden’d excrements.

1656.  J. Smith, Pract. Physick, 49. The vicious matter must be evacuated.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 721. Here from the vicious Air, and sickly Skies, A Plague did on the dumb Creation rise.

1831.  J. F. South, trans. Otto’s Path. Anat., 73–4. The last object of pathological anatomy is the consideration of vicious contents … which have no organic connexion with the animal body.

  † b.  Harmful, noxious. Obs.^–1

1656.  Earl Monm., trans. Boccalini’s Advts. fr. Parnass., I. x. (1674), 12. Those Shops wherein vitious things are sold.

  † 8.  Of a part or a function of the body: Morbid, diseased; irregular. Obs.

1615.  Crooke, Body of Man, 304. Who euer saw a conception, although it were vitious and illegitimate, which was not couered with a Filme as it were with a Garment?

1646.  Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., VII. ii. 342. The vicious excesse in the number of fingers and toes.

1707.  Floyer, Physic. Pulse-Watch, 373. The five Members and their Intestines being changed twice five times by five vitious Pulses.

1733.  Cheyne, Eng. Malady, II. vii. § 2 (1734), 185. A vitious Liver seems to be one of the primary … Causes of Nervous Distempers.

  9.  Vicious circle. a. Logic. (See sense 6 b and CIRCLE sb. 19.)

c. 1792.  Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), X. 69/1. He runs into what is termed by logicians a vicious circle.

1812.  Woodhouse, Astron., viii. 52. This seems to be something like arguing in a vicious circle.

1830.  Herschel, Study Nat. Phil., 209. It may seem to be arguing in a vicious circle to have recourse to observation for any part of those … conclusions.

1865.  Mozley, Mirac., iv. 76. The whole evidence of revelation becomes a vicious circle.

1876.  [see CIRCLE sb. 19].

  transf.  1839.  Sir H. Holland, Med. Notes & Refl., 100. Thus the practice proceeds, in a vicious circle of habit, from which the patient is rarely extricated without … injury to his future health.

  b.  Path. A morbid process consisting in the reciprocal continuation and aggravation of one disorder by another.

1883.  Duncan, Clin. Lect. Dis. Women (ed. 2), x. 78. There is, in this disease, what is sometimes called a vicious circle, and I shall have in the course of this lecture, to point out to you several instances of this vicious circle.

  10.  Comb., as vicious-looking.

1871.  ‘M. Legrand,’ Camb. Freshm., 247. The gray mare expressed her denial … by giving one or two slight but uncommonly vicious-looking kicks.

1894.  Mrs. Dyan, Man’s Keeping (1899), 60. Those vicious-looking knives looked as if they could do such work well.