vindictive
/vɪnˈdɪktɪv
/adjective
Having or showing a strong or unreasoning desire for revenge: the criticism was both vindictive and personalized...
- Never the less, it also makes me extremely bitter and vindictive and say horrid things.
- Everything conspires to bring out the worst in him as he turns petty, malicious and vindictive.
- Though Scylla is bent, harsh, and angry, the source of her rage is not vindictive.
Synonyms
vengeful, out for revenge, revengeful, avenging, unforgiving, grudge-bearing, resentful, ill-disposed, implacable, unrelenting, acrimonious, bitter;
spiteful, mean, mean-spirited, rancorous, venomous, poisonous, malicious, malevolent, malignant, malign, evil, evil-intentioned, nasty, cruel, unkind, ill-natured, baleful
informal catty, bitchy
literary malefic, maleficent
Derivatives
vindictively
/ adverb ...- The Captain's civilian lawyer has said the charges were vindictively added as part of an effort to cover up the military's mistake and initial overreaction.
- When Paula vindictively sets up a date for her mother with a kindly old dullard, the film resorts to caricature and grotesque camera effects to persuade us of how unseemly the older gent's needs and desires are.
- The judge knew we had all these debts and yet he punitively and vindictively imposed these defence costs on us as well.
vindictiveness
/ noun ...- ‘Venom, vindictiveness, viciousness - that's what this case is about,’ Gunter told the jury.
- A whole folklore exists about the humiliations, petty vindictiveness, fights and resentments associated with involuntary communal living.
- This is a policy founded on spite and vindictiveness.
Origin
Early 17th century: from Latin vindicta 'vengeance' + -ive.