adjective
- full of, characterized by, or showing malice; intentionally harmful; spiteful: malicious gossip.
- Law. vicious, wanton, or mischievous in motivation or purpose.
adjective
- characterized by malice
- motivated by wrongful, vicious, or mischievous purposes
adv.late 14c., from malicious + -ly (2). adj.early 13c., from Old French malicios “showing ill will, spiteful, wicked” (Modern French malicieux), from Latin malitiosus “wicked, malicious,” from malitia “badness, ill will, spite,” from malus “bad” (see mal-). In legal use (early 14c., Anglo-French), it means “characterized by malice prepense.”