flagitious

comparative more flagitious · superlative most flagitious

1. literaryGuilty of terrible crimes; wicked, criminal.

   As flagitious as he can be, Mr. Trump has been a legitimate news figure and, thus, what he had to say should be aired.

   2020 December 31, Kara Swisher, “Goodbye, Twitter Trump! And Other Predictions for 2021”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   2 more examples

   This young Nobleman was not only a flagitious Punster himself, but was accessary to the Punning of others, by Consent, by Provocation, by Connivance, and by Defence of the Evil committed […] .

   1716 Nov 7th, quoted from 1742, probably Alexander Pope, God's Revenge Against Punning, from Miscellanies, 3rd volume, page 227

   The duke found his soldiery half disciplined, flagitious, disorderly and inefficient: he rendered them, in his own words, a "perfect organ."

   1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XLIV, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 258

2. literaryExtremely brutal or wicked; heinous, monstrous.

   As he entered he boomed: "Monstrous! Flagitious!"

   1959, Rex Stout, “Assault on a Brownstone”, in Death Times Three, published 1985, page 186

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   But if in Noble Minds ſome Dregs remain, / Not yet purg'd off, of Spleen and ſow'r Diſdain, / Diſcharge that Rage on more Provoking Crimes, / Nor fear a Dearth on theſe Flagitious Times.

   1711 May, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: […] W[illiam] Lewis […]; and sold by W[illiam] Taylor […], T[homas] Osborn[e] […], and J[ohn] Graves […], →OCLC, page 30

   Less extensively mischievous, tyrannicide would be less flagitious than populicide; murder of one, though he were a Secretary of State; or—but imagination must stop here—than murder of a promiscuous multitude of unarmed men, women, and children.

   1824 December 9 (date written), Jeremy Bentham, “[Letter 3153] To the Catholic Association”, in Luke O’Sullivan, Catherine Fuller, editors, The Correspondence of Jeremy Bentham, volume 12 (July 1824 to June 1828), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, published 2006, →ISBN, footer 5, page 73

   Synonyms: infamous, scandalous, nefarious, iniquitous