VILLAINOUS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does villainous mean? 

• VILLAINOUS (adjective)
  The adjective VILLAINOUS has 1 sense:

1. extremely wicked

  Familiarity information: VILLAINOUS used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VILLAINOUS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Extremely wicked

Synonyms:

nefarious; villainous

Context example:

a villainous band of thieves

Similar:

wicked (morally bad in principle or practice)

Derivation:

villain (a wicked or evil person; someone who does evil deliberately)

villainousness (the quality of evil by virtue of villainous behavior)

 Context examples 

“You knew me, a long time before I came here and was changed, Mr. Copperfield,” said Uriah, looking at me; and a more villainous look I never saw, even on his visage.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

That villainous stuff seems still to linger round my throat.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

On the morning after our being trapped upon the plateau by the villainous Gomez we began a new stage in our experiences.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The captain glared at him for a while, flapped his hand again, glared still harder, and at last broke out with a villainous, low oath, “Silence, there, between decks!”

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

But there is a certain villainous and bloodthirsty Norman pirate hight Tete-noire, who, with a Genoan called Tito Caracci, commonly known as Spade-beard, hath been a mighty scourge upon these coasts.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A moment later he emerged, a heavy-set young fellow of eighteen or nineteen, with a glowering, villainous countenance, trailing at his heels.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The high object of our mission, the consciousness that it was unselfish and chivalrous, the villainous character of our opponent, all added to the sporting interest of the adventure.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Mrs. Bennet, to whose apartment they all repaired, after a few minutes' conversation together, received them exactly as might be expected; with tears and lamentations of regret, invectives against the villainous conduct of Wickham, and complaints of her own sufferings and ill-usage; blaming everybody but the person to whose ill-judging indulgence the errors of her daughter must principally be owing.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

This familiar that I called out of my own soul, and sent forth alone to do his good pleasure, was a being inherently malign and villainous; his every act and thought centered on self; drinking pleasure with bestial avidity from any degree of torture to another; relentless like a man of stone.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Microwaves, the very same radiation that can heat up your dinner, are produced by a multitude of astrophysical sources, including strong emitters known as masers (microwave lasers), even stronger emitters with the somewhat villainous name of megamasers and the centers of some galaxies.

(Hubble's Megamaser Galaxy, ESA/NASA)