| 释义 |
vicious, a.|ˈvɪʃəs|
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 n.1]
I.
1. Of habits, practices, etc.: Of the nature of vice; contrary to moral principles; depraved, immoral, bad.
αc1340Hampole 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. c1380Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 430 Þe mor part of men, bi her viciose lijf, ben combred in þis heresye. 1390Gower Conf. III. 111 He is so ferforth Amourous, He not what thing is vicious Touchende love. c1420Lydg. Assembly of Gods 2097 From hys gloryous syght thus he vs estraungeth, For our vycyous lyuyng, thorough owre owne foly. c1430― Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 70 O loode-sterre of al goode governaunce! Alle vicious lustes by wisdom to represse. 1535–6Act 27 Hen. VIII, c. 28 §1 Ther [sc. monks'] vycyous lyvyng shamelesly encreasseth & augmentith. 1555Eden Decades (Arb.) 53 Dissolute lyuynge, licentious talke, and such other vicious behauoures. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage iv. ix. (1614) 391 Richard Iohnson caused the English, by his vicious liuing, to bee worse accounted of then the Russes. 1690Locke Hum. Und. ii. xxi. §45 He..who prefers the short pleasures of a vicious Life upon any consideration. 1736Butler Anal. i. iii. Wks. 1874 I. 54 Vicious actions, considered as mischievous to society, should be punished. 1791Mrs. Radcliffe Rom. Forest viii, The Marquis pursuing her with insult and vicious passion. 1838Thirlwall Greece V. xliii. 249 Interpreted by his enemies as a proof of unmanly luxury and vicious habits. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) IV. 13 Plato attempts to identify vicious pleasures with some form of error.
β1535Stewart Cron. Scot. (Rolls) II. 426 How Donaldus..wes crownit King of Scottis, and of his vitius Lyfe. 1585T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. i. xviii. 21 [He] changed his good maners and vertues into most vitious tyrannies. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. i. i. ii. xi. 45 Thence come..many times vitious Habits, customes, ferall Diseases. c1670Hobbes Dial. Com. Laws (1681) 7 How can a man be indicted of Avarice, Envy, Hypocrisie or any other vitious Habit till it be declared? 1700Prior Carmen Seculare xxxiv, Some [Societies] that to Morals shall recal the Age, And purge from vitious Dross the sinking Stage. a1763Shenstone Elegies xv. 54 To fire with vitious hopes a modest heir. 1791Burke Let. to Memb. Nat. Assembly 32 Though his practical and speculative morals were vitious in the extreme. 1817Jas. Mill Brit. India II. v. ii. 370 His conduct was vitious and weak.
2. a. Of persons: Addicted to vice or immorality; of depraved habits; profligate, wicked.
αc1386Chaucer Monk's T. 473 Alþouhe Nero were as vicious As fende þat liþe ful lowe adoune. c1400Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton, 1483) iv. xxxv. 83 Vpon theues and morderers,..mysprowde men and vicious they shalle be fyers in jugement. c1450Mirk's Festial 253 For yche good man ys loþe forto be yn company wyth a vycyous man. 1483Rolls of Parlt. VI. 240/2 Personnes insolent, vicious, and of inordinate avarice. a1548Hall 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. 1598R. Barckley Felic. Man v. 518 Such as he found rich & vicious, he would depriue them from the Senate. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage viii. iv. 629 He saith, that the Armouchiquois are a great people, but haue no adoration. They are vicious and bloudie. 1652Loveday tr. Calprenede's Cassandra iii. 161, I have known indeed many of the viciousest persons lead a long life with sweetnesse and contentment. 1729Butler Serm. Wks. 1874 II. 22 Mankind is in this sense naturally vicious, or vicious by nature. 1766Fordyce Serm. to Yng. Wm. (1767) I. i. 10 There are foolish and vicious women. 1793Holcroft tr. Lavater's Physiog. xxxi. 164 Vicious men resemble valuable paintings which have been destroyed by varnish. 1813Shelley Q. Mab vii. 124 Every soul on this ungrateful earth, Virtuous or vicious,..Shall perish. 1862Thackeray 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. 1874Green Short Hist. ix. §1. 589 Vicious as the stage was, it only reflected the general vice of the time.
βc1400Destr. Troy 527 Voidis me noght of vitius,..Ne deme no dishonesty in your derfe hert. 1562Winȝet Wks. (S.T.S.) I. 44 He causis sumtyme vitious or tyrane princes..to haue dominioun aboue vs. 1596Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. I. 161 Jn the beginning of his regyne a gude Prince, eftirwarde vitious. 1628Burton Anat. Mel. (ed. 3) ii. iii. vii. 330 Themistocles..was a most deboshed and vitious youth. 1660Milton Free Commw. Wks. 1851 V. 451 Monarchs..whose Aim is to make the People wealthy,..but otherwise softest, basest, vitiousest, servilest. 1678L'Estrange Seneca's Mor. (1702) 178 Drunkenness..does not make Men Vitious but it shews them to be so. 1755Young Centaur iv. Wks. 1757 IV. 200 My less vitious companions fell frequent around me; and dismal was their fall.
†b. Const. of. Obs.
c1374Chaucer 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. 1453Coventry 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. 1460J. Capgrave Chron. 116 He was vicious of lyvyng, a hunter outeragious. 1530Palsgr. 328 Vyciouse of conversacyon. 1557North Gueuara's Diall Pr. Prol. A j b, The man that is vitious of his personne..deserveth to be banished. 1577Holinshed Chron. II. 1556/1 Some Princes basterd,..high minded, full of reuenge, vitious of his body.
c. absol. with the.
1390Gower Conf. III. 226 He putte awey the vicious And tok to him the vertuous. 1536G. Wishart in Misc. Wodrow Soc. 18 And by all meanes compell and reproue the faultie and vicious. a1581Campion 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. 1673O. Walker Educ. (1677) 220 Most men have greater averseness to the incompliant than the vitious. 1711Addison Spect. No. 16 ⁋3 If I attack the Vicious, I shall only set upon them in a Body. 1782V. Knox Ess. xii. (1819) I. 71 With the vicious you must be vicious. a1805H. K. White Mel. Hours ix, She..has found, by bitter experience, that the vicious..are devoid of all feeling but that of self-gratification. 1863Biogr. 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.
1713Shaftesbury 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. a. Falling short of, or varying from, what is morally or practically commendable; reprehensible, blameworthy, mischievous.
c1386Chaucer 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. 1500–20Dunbar Poems xviii. 38 Thair vicious wordis and vanitie, Thair tratling tungis. 1531Elyot 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. 1575Gascoigne Glasse of Govt. Wks. 1910 II. 45 To bee opinionate of him selfe is vitious. a1578Lindesay (Pitscottie) Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.) I. 47 James..thinkand it was wicious to denude the auld herietaig of ane house [etc.]. 1611Shakes. Cymb. v. v. 65 It had beene vicious To haue mistrusted her. 1648Milton 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. 1692Prior Ode Imit. Horace ii, See the Repenting Isle Awakes, Her Vicious Chains the generous Goddess breaks. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 159 ⁋7 A timidity which he himself knows to be vicious. 1780Cowper Let. 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. 1825Jefferson Autob. Wks. 1859 I. 36 Our legislation, under the regal government, had many very vicious points. 1845McCulloch 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. 1879G. C. 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.
1657Trapp Comm. Ps. v. 26 Pope John 22 held the morality of the soule, and was otherwise erroneous and vitious.
4. a. 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.
1711Shaftesbury 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. 1720Swift 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. 1774Goldsm. 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. 1818Ranken Hist. France IV. iv. iii. 267 A vicious animal, having injured any person, was forfeited. 1865M. Arnold Ess. Crit. vi. 195 Look at that bay horse rearing bolt upright; what a vicious one! 1892J. A. Henderson Annals Lower Deeside 156 Philip, being flung by a vicious horse, likewise succumbed.
transf.1814Ld. 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.
1825Jennings Dial. W. Eng., Vitious, spiteful, revengeful. 1859Tennyson Marr. Geraint 194 The dwarf,..being vicious, old and irritable,..Made answer sharply that she should not know. 1908G. 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.
1882Jamieson's Sc. Dict. IV. 695/2 Vitious weather. 1902J. Buchan Watcher by Threshold 81 The weather seemed more vicious than ever.
II.
5. a. Law. Marred, or rendered void, by some inherent fault or defect; not satisfying legal requirements or conditions; unlawful, illegal.
1393in Collect. Topographica (1836) III. 257 To ensele the same forsaid vicious fenyd chartre. c1555Harpsfield Divorce Hen. VIII (1878) 44 The act being vicious and nought at the beginning, cannot be by tract of time confirmed. 1561Reg. 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. 1765H. Walpole Otranto iii, I have consented to put my title to the issue of the sword—does that imply a vitious title? 1880Muirhead 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, vicious intromitter (see quot. 1838 and intromission 2). Scots Law.
1678Sir 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]. 1747in Nairne Peerage Evid. (1874) 149 Universal and vitious intromitters with his goods and gear. 1765–8Erskine 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. 1838W. 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. a1856G. 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.
1589Puttenham 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. 1638Baker tr. Balzac's Lett. (vol. II) 208 He shall have the honour to purge his country of a vitious phrase. 1655Vaughan Silex Scint. i. Pref., The complaint against vitious verse..is of some antiquity in this Kingdom. 1695H. Wharton in Laud's Wks. (1853) V. 371 Although the orthography be vicious (a matter common to many learned men of that time). 1711Shaftesbury Charac. I. 145 Whatever Quarter we may give to our vicious Poets, or other Composers of irregular and short-liv'd Works. 1841W. Spalding Italy & It. Isl. I. 141 His mode of writing was vicious, rhetorical, antithetical, and forced. 1883D. 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.
1605Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. xiii. §3. 50 The Induction which the Logitians speake of;..their fourme of induction I say is vtterly vitious and incompetent. 1646Sir 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. 1697tr. 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. 1774Reid 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. 1856P. 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. 1864Bowen 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.
1638Junius Paint. Ancients 228 The uttermost on either side is vicious. 1650Bulwer Anthropomet. 4 A vitious figure of the head is known by sight. 1726Leoni Alberti's Archit. II. 90 b, Rightly supposing that the truth must lie in some medium between these two vitious extremes. 1746Francis tr. Hor., Sat. ii. iii. 35 Here the rude chizzel's rougher strokes I trac'd; In flowing brass a vicious hardness found. 1846Art-Union Jrnl. Oct. 285 The foundations of the bridge were originally vicious. 1855Macaulay 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. 1880Fraser'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.
1604Shakes. Oth. iii. iii. 145 Though I perchance am vicious in my guesse.
7. a. Foul, impure, noxious, morbid. ? Obs.
1597Gerarde Herbal iii. xxxv. 1168 Berries..full of clammie or vicious moisture. 1608Topsell Serpents 188 Theyr liuer is very vitious, and causeth the whole body to be of ill temperament. 1641Milton Reform. 55 Thou..that art but a bottle of vitious and harden'd excrements. 1656J. Smith Pract. Physick 49 The vicious matter must be evacuated. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 721 Here from the vicious Air, and sickly Skies, A Plague did on the dumb Creation rise. 1831South Otto's Path. Anat. 73 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
1656Earl of Monmouth tr. 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.
1615Crooke 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? 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. vii. ii. 342 The vicious excesse in the number of fingers and toes. 1707Floyer Physic. Pulse-Watch 373 The five Members and their Intestines being changed twice five times by five vitious Pulses. 1733Cheyne 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 n. 19.)
c1792Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) X. 69/1 He runs into what is termed by logicians a vicious circle. 1812Woodhouse Astron. viii. 52 This seems to be something like arguing in a vicious circle. 1830Herschel 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. 1865Mozley Mirac. iv. 76 The whole evidence of revelation becomes a vicious circle. 1876[see circle n. 19].
b. Path. A morbid process consisting in the reciprocal continuation and aggravation of one disorder by another.
1883Duncan 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.
c. gen. A situation in which action and reaction intensify each other; a self-perpetuating process of aggravation. Similarly vicious spiral, in which the ill-effects are cumulative. Cf. spiral n. 2 d.
1839Sir 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. 1892H. James Notebks. (1947) 130 The whole situation works in a kind of inevitable rotary way—in what would be called a vicious circle. 1929[see Dostoyevskian a.]. 1940M. Nicholson How Britain's Resources are Mobilized (Oxf. Pamphlets on World Affairs No. 30) 24 The result, when supplies of goods are short, is to bid up prices, thus raising the cost of living, inspiring demands for increased wages and starting the ‘vicious spiral’ of inflation. 1958Spectator 11 July 60/2 All stress disorder is subject to this vicious-spiral rule. 1965Listener 11 Nov. 741/2 It is sometimes necessary to enact laws against racism as a first step towards breaking a vicious circle. 1975Times 23 Aug. 1/5 This is a vicious spiral of..mounting prices and declining traffic volume. 1982Times 26 Aug. 3/8 It is a vicious circle. The boats cannot be sure of selling their fish until the processors invest in the new plant to handle it, and the processors cannot risk their money until they are sure that the fleet has guaranteed fishing areas and catch quotas.
10. vicious abstraction (Philos.), the abstraction of one quality or term from a thing or concept at the expense of other qualities or terms of which it is also composed; hence vicious abstractionism.
1883F. H. Bradley Princ. Logic 511 If we recognize these elements our unit is not solitary; if we ignore them we fall into vicious abstraction. 1909W. James Meaning of Truth xiii. 249 Let me give the name of ‘vicious abstractionism’ to a way of using concepts which may be thus described. 1932H. H. Price Perception vii. 173 To use the language of the Idealist tradition, they only seem to be mere acceptances through a ‘vicious abstraction’.
11. 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. 1894M. Dyan Man's Keeping (1899) 60 Those vicious-looking knives looked as if they could do such work well. |