evil

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Immorality

Nouns

1. (something evil) evil, ill, harm, hurt; mischief, nuisance; disadvantage, drawback; disaster, casualty, mishap, misfortune, calamity, catastrophe, tragedy, adversity; abomination, peccancy, atrocity, crime against humanity, bane, curse, scourge, Jonah; evil eye, curse. Informal, jinx, [double] whammy. Slang, bad news. See improbity.

2. (evil quality) badness, wickedness, sin, vice, iniquity, impiety, immorality, corruption, weakness of the flesh, moral infirmity or turpitude, depravity, degeneracy, profligacy. See malevolence.

3. (evil act) outrage, wrong, injury, foul play; bad or ill turn; disservice, spoliation, grievance, crying evil.

4. den of iniquity, Sodom, Gomorrah; sewer, pit, gutter. Slang, the pits. See impurity.

5. see evildoer.

Verbs

1. be or do evil, sin, harm, hurt, injure, wrong, outrage, dishonor, victimize; stray [from the paths of righteousness], go wrong, err; degenerate, fall [from grace], lapse; relapse.

2. turn to evil, deprave, demoralize, send to the dogs; defile, sully.

Adjectives

1. evil, bad, ill, sinful, peccant, wicked, wrong, vicious, immoral, corrupt, degenerate, depraved, dissolute; unrighteous, unvirtuous; diabolical (see demon); fallen, lapsed; callous, hardhearted.

2. harmful, hurtful, noisome, injurious; malevolent; prejudicial, disastrous.

Adverbs — evilly, badly, etc.; amiss, wrong, ill, to one's cost.

Phrases — never do evil that good may come of it; two wrongs don't make a right; sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Quotations — Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil (Bible), The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones (Shakespeare), It is necessary only for the good man to do nothing for evil to triumph (Edmund Burke), Men alone are quite capable of every wickedness (Joseph Conrad), The face of "evil" is always the face of total need (William S. Burroughs), Pity the criminal all you like, but don't call evil good (Fyodor Dostoyevsky), All human evil comes from this: a man's being unable to sit still in a room (Pascal).

Antonyms, see goodness.

II

(Roget's IV) modif.

1. [Morally bad]

Syn. immoral, wicked, sinful, corrupt, diabolical, satanic, sinister, heinous, atrocious, monstrous, loathsome, foul, repugnant, despicable, malevolent, malignant; see also wicked 1 .

2. [Unpropitious]

Syn. destructive, calamitous, disastrous; see harmful , ominous , sinister .

See Synonym Study at wicked . n.

1. [The quality of being evil]

Syn. sin, wickedness, depravity, crime, sinfulness, corruption, vice, immorality, iniquity, knavery, perversity, badness, villainy, vileness, baseness, meanness, infamy, heinousness, enormity, criminality, nefariousness, malignity, impiety, malevolence, viciousness, wrong, degeneracy, debauchery, decadence, looseness, lewdness, licentiousness, dissoluteness, wantonness, grossness, turpitude, wrongdoing, darkness, foulness, degradation, worm in the apple, the devil within one, obscenity, profligacy, devilry, diabolism, fiendishness.

Ant. virtue*, good, goodness.

2. [A harmful or malicious action]

Syn. ill, harm, injury, damage, mischief, misfortune, wrong, scandal, calamity, pollution, contamination, catastrophe, blow, disaster, plague, curse, outrage, atrocity, abomination, foul play, ill wind*, crying shame*, machinations of the Devil*.

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus)

I

n.

badness, immorality, sinfulness, indecency, criminality, wickedness, villainy, diabolism, iniquity, viciousness, vileness, lawlessness, cruelty, misfortune, ruin, affliction, harm, woe, catastrophe, disaster. ''Whatever springs from weakness.''—Nietzsche. ''Good tortured by its own hunger and thirst.''— Kahil Gibran.

ANT.: morality, goodness, righteousness

II

a.

immoral, bad, wicked, depraved, demonic, sinful, villainous, heinous, malicious, iniquitous, atrocious, foul, black, damnable, nefarious, malevolent.

ANT.: good, moral, righteous, virtuous

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) I adjective 1. Morally objectionable: bad, black, immoral, iniquitous, peccant, reprobate, sinful, vicious, wicked, wrong. See RIGHT. 2. Causing harm or injury: bad, deleterious, detrimental, harmful, hurtful, ill, injurious, mischievous. See HELP. 3. Bringing, predicting, or characterized by misfortune: bad, ill, inauspicious, unfavorable, unpropitious. See LUCK. 4. Characterized by intense ill will or spite: black, despiteful, hateful, malevolent, malicious, malign, malignant, mean2, nasty, poisonous, spiteful, venomous, vicious, wicked. Slang: bitchy. See ATTITUDE. II noun 1. That which is morally bad or objectionable: iniquity, peccancy, sin, wickedness, wrong. See RIGHT. 2. A wicked act or wicked behavior: crime, deviltry, diablerie, evildoing, immorality, iniquity, misdeed, offense, peccancy, sin, wickedness, wrong, wrongdoing. See RIGHT. 3. Whatever is destructive or harmful: bad, badness, ill. See HELP. 4. A cause of suffering or harm: affliction, bane, curse, ill, plague, scourge, woe. See HELP.