vile

comparative viler · comparative more vile · superlative vilest · superlative most vile

1. Morally low; base; despicable.

   vile man

   4 more examples

   vile accusation

   Turn now to the temperance revolution. In it we shall find a stronger bondage broken, a viler slavery manumitted, a greater tyrant deposed; in it, more of want supplied, more disease healed, more sorrow assuaged.

   1842 February 22, Abraham Lincoln, “Address Before the Springfield Washingtonian Temperance Society”, in Arthur Brooks Lapsley, editor, The Papers and Writings of Abraham Lincoln

   The parties stooped to vile and unbecoming meannesses; infinite briberies, forgeries, perjuries, and all manners of debauchings of the principles and manners of the electors were attempted.

   1870, William Minto, “Daniel Defoe”, in Acme Library of Standard Biography

   People crave human decency, warmth, and sincerity even in the vilest of circumstances…

   2020 January 1, “Cultivating Myself Well and Helping People to Understand the Truth about Falun Dafa”, in Minghui

2. Causing physical or mental repulsion; horrid; disgusting.

   We can't go out in this vile weather.

   4 more examples

   I glimpsed a vile squid-like creature in the depths.

   The medicine had a vile taste and smell.

   The sailors expected me to be sick, but I stood up to it like a seasoned salt, although the food was the vilest I have ever tasted, and that’s saying a lot.

   1933, Frank Clune, Try Anything Once, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 38

   Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into his breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped quickly through the glass doors of Victory Mansions, though not quickly enough to prevent a swirl of gritty dust from entering along with him.

   1949 June 8, George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, London: Secker & Warburg, →OCLC, Part I, Chapter I

1. uncountableThat which is vile; vileness.

   1 more example

   “I had seen those two work before—in the smoking-room the day prior to their attack on you, if I recollect it correctly, and so, knowing their methods, I am convinced that their enmity is a sufficient guarantee of the integrity of its object. Men such as they must cleave only to the vile, hating all that is noblest and best.”

   1913 June–December, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Forging Bonds of Hate and ——?”, in The Return of Tarzan, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, […], published March 1915, →OCLC, pages 26–27

   Synonyms: base, despicable, mean, ignoble, inappropriate