Chapter Malaxator to Malignantly of M by Webster's Dictionary (1913 Edition)

1. Indulging or exercising malice; harboring ill will or enmity.

I grant him bloody, . . .
Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin
That has a name.

Shak.

2. Proceeding from hatred or ill will; dictated by malice; as, a malicious report; malicious mischief.

3. (Law) With wicked or mischievous intentions or motives; wrongful and done intentionally without just cause or excuse; as, a malicious act.

Malicious abandonment, the desertion of a wife or husband without just cause. Burrill. — Malicious mischief (Law), malicious injury to the property of another; — an offense at common law. Wharton. — Malicious prosecutionor arrest (Law), a wanton prosecution or arrest, by regular process in a civil or criminal proceeding, without probable cause. Bouvier.

Syn. — Ill-disposed; evil-minded; mischievous; envious; malevolent; invidious; spiteful; bitter; malignant; rancorous; malign.

— Ma*li"cious*ly, adv. — Ma*li"cious*ness, n.

Malign
(Ma*lign") a. [L. malignus, for maligenus, i. e., of a bad kind or nature; malus bad + the root of genus birth, race, kind: cf. F. malin, masc., maligne, fem. See Malice, Gender, and cf. Benign, Malignant.]

1. Having an evil disposition toward others; harboring violent enmity; malevolent; malicious; spiteful; — opposed to benign.

Witchcraft may be by operation of malign spirits.

Bacon.

2. Unfavorable; unpropitious; pernicious; tending to injure; as, a malign aspect of planets.

3. Malignant; as, a malign ulcer. [R.] Bacon.

Malign
(Ma*lign"), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Maligned ; p. pr. & vb. n. Maligning.] [Cf. L. malignare. See Malign, a.] To treat with malice; to show hatred toward; to abuse; to wrong; to injure. [Obs.]

The people practice what mischiefs and villainies they will against private men, whom they malign by stealing their goods, or murdering them.

Spenser.

2. To speak great evil of; to traduce; to defame; to slander; to vilify; to asperse.

To be envied and shot at; to be maligned standing, and to be despised falling.

South.

Malign
(Ma*lign"), v. i. To entertain malice. [Obs.]

Malignance
(Ma*lig"nance Ma*lig"nan*cy) , n. [See Malignant.]

1. The state or quality of being malignant; extreme malevolence; bitter enmity; malice; as, malignancy of heart.

2. Unfavorableness; evil nature.

The malignancy of my fate might perhaps distemner yours.

Shak.

3. (Med.) Virulence; tendency to a fatal issue; as, the malignancy of an ulcer or of a fever.

4. The state of being a malignant.

Syn. — Malice; malevolence; malignity. See Malice.