vile
/vʌɪl
/adjective
1Extremely unpleasant: he has a vile temper vile smells...
- He was sure I'd would say something vulgar, vile, or extremely arrogant; it was how I'd worked.
- Seagulls really are disgusting, nasty, vile animals, naturally horrible, and made worse by hanging out with humans presumably.
- It was, as you would expect, a pretty vile and unpleasant week.
Synonyms
foul, nasty, unpleasant, bad, disagreeable, horrid, horrible, dreadful, abominable, atrocious, offensive, obnoxious, odious, unsavoury, repulsive, off-putting, repellent, revolting, repugnant, disgusting, distasteful, loathsome, hateful, nauseating, sickening;
base, low, mean, wretched, disgraceful, appalling, shocking, ugly, vulgar, sorry, shabby, shameful, dishonourable, execrable, heinous, abhorrent, deplorable, monstrous, wicked, evil, dark, dirty, vicious, iniquitous, sinful, corrupt, sordid, depraved, perverted, debased, reprobate, degenerate, debauched, dissolute, contemptible, despicable, reprehensible, diabolical, diabolic, devilish, fiendish, hellish, damnable
informal yucky, sick-making, gut-churning, icky, gross, God-awful, low-down, rotten, sick
British informal beastly
Northern Irish informal bogging
North American informal lousy, vomitous
vulgar slang shitty
literary noisome
archaic scurvy, disgustful, loathly
rare egregious, flagitious
1.1Morally bad; wicked: as vile a rogue as ever lived...
- It was used as a place where the pagan worshipers did all sorts of vile and wicked things - including burning children alive as sacrifices to the idols Moloch and Baal.
- ‘The terrorists who are seeking to destroy the country have struck a cruel blow with this vile act today,’ he said.
- A poisonous racist, a supporter of eugenics, a proponent of mass murder, a vile imperialist and… an apologist for Fascism?
1.2 archaic Of little worth or value: all the feasts that thou hast shared erewhile, to mine shall be but vile
Derivatives
vilely
/ adverb ...- He felt that ‘they are more vilely oppressed than they have ever been before in their history.’
- Most vilely, he claims I was beset by an ‘explosive urge’ to blow up his house.
- And could he trust the word again of anyone who so vilely wronged him?
vileness
/ noun ...- Men who practice viciousness and vileness are shown no mercy by the gods.
- I hunt down and exterminate soul-less monsters of unimaginable horror and vileness.
- Women have been writing books about the vileness and tedium of domestic life for ever.
Origin
Middle English: via Old French from Latin vilis 'of low value'.