villainous

• villanous (obsolete)

From Middle English vileinous, from Old French vileneus. By surface analysis, villain +‎ -ous.

• IPA^(key): /ˈvɪlənəs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

villainous (comparative more villainous, superlative most villainous)

1. Of, relating to, or appropriate to a villain.
2. Wicked, offensive, or reprehensible in nature or behaviour; nefarious.
   • 1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster or The Arraignment: […], London: […] [R. Bradock] for M[atthew] L[ownes] […], published 1602, →OCLC, Act III:

     Tuc[ca]. […] Can thy Author doe it impudently enough? / Hiſt[rio]. O, I warrant you, Captaine: and ſpitefully inough too; he ha's one of the moſt ouerflowing villanous wits, in Rome. He will ſlander any man that breathes; If he diſguſt him. / Tucca. I'le know the poor, egregious, nitty Raſcall; and he haue ſuch commendable Qualities, I'le cheriſh him: […]

   • 1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, →OCLC, page 9:

     Bah! to this toilet for the villainous boredom of church.

   • 2008 April 4, Alessandra Stanley, “Space Opera Returns: One Last Step for Mankind”, in The New York Times‎^[1], archived from the original on 9 November 2020:

     Baltar, played hammily as a selfish, cowardly survivor, is to “Battlestar Galactica” what Erica Kane is to “All My Children” — an amusingly villainous central character who brings a little campy comic relief to all that earnest, jaw-clenched melodrama.

• villainly
• villainy

• villainously
• villainousness