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comparative more malignant, superlative most malignant
Harmful, malevolent, injurious. quotations examples
[…] while, I fear, there will be some white ones, unable to forget that, with malignant heart, and deceitful speech, they have strove to hinder it.
1863 August 26, Abraham Lincoln, Letter to James Conkling, page 7
(medicine) Tending to produce death; threatening a fatal issue. quotations examples
“[…] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes […] . And then, when you see [the senders], you probably find that they are the most melancholy old folk with malignant diseases. […]”
1922, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest
plural malignants
A deviant; a person who is hostile or destructive to society. quotations examples
As devout Stephen was carried to his burial by devout men, so is it just and equal that malignants should carry malignants […]
1823, The Retrospective Review, volume 7, page 11
A malignant in a position of real power immediately becomes a tyrant.
1999, National Institute of Business Management, Difficult People at Work, page 8
(historical, derogatory, obsolete) A person who fought for Charles I in the English Civil War.