villainy

plural villainies

1. uncountableEvil or wicked character or behaviour.

   Mos Eisley spaceport- you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.

   1977, Star Wars, spoken by Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness)

2. countableA wicked or treacherous act.

   1 more example

   He drew from his pocket a pistol, which, devoid of principle or honour, with an assassin-like assault, he instantly aimed at the breast of Lord Deloraine, but which, in the struggle that ensued, as if by retributive justice, went off unexpectedly and lodged its contents in the body of Melliphant,—thus doomed to receive his punishment by his own hand, and by the very weapon he had carried for his own defence in the perpetration of his villanies.

   1838, [Letitia Elizabeth] Landon (indicated as editor), Duty and Inclination: […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 292–293

3. obsoleteuncountableIll-treatment, indignity, degrading or shameful treatment of someone.
4. obsoleteuncountableDisgrace, ignominy.
5. obsoleteuncountableThe state of being a villein or serf, and by extension servitude or low estate in life.
6. obsoleteuncountableBoorishness, rudeness, bad cultivation or manners.

comparative more villainy · superlative most villainy

1. Characteristic of a villain.

   We are all villainy— very villainy, as I am a Christian man.

   1839, Robert Folkestone Williams, The Youth of Shakspeare

   2 more examples

   Apparently, in both domestic and foreign movies, you can't get too villainy to displease an audience.

   1993, William Froug, Screenwriting Tricks of the Trade, page 51

   Yet here, actual reality offers you the worst villain ever and you say, sorry, he is too villainy.

   2019, Greg Gutfeld, The Gutfeld Monologues, page 166

   Synonyms: villainly, villainous