vindictive

comparative more vindictive · superlative most vindictive

1. Having a tendency to seek revenge when wronged, vengeful.

   The vindictive mockery in her voice made his brain quiver.

   1920 November 9, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter XVIII, in Women in Love, New York, N.Y.: Privately printed [by Thomas Seltzer] for subscribers only, →OCLC

   3 more examples

   Lord Avonleigh was an angry rather than a vindictive man. Vindictiveness requires more energy of character than he possessed. Indeed, it may be questioned whether he would of himself have taken the violent measures of the preceding evening.

   1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXXIX, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 326

   The victors will exact vindictive penalties and the losers of course will undertake to pay, but none of them realizes that money is going to do the most extraordinary things to them when they begin upon that.

   1933 September, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “Introduction: The Dream Book of Dr. Philip Raven”, in The Shape of Things to Come, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, page 5

   This means giving feedback in a way that the boss cannot identify who has given it. Let’s face it: we have some vindictive people as bosses, and you don’t want to be the target of their wrath.

   2018 February 18, Dawn Pine, “Strategies for Dealing with a Bad Boss”, in Return of Kings, archived from the original on 01 Oct 2020

   Synonyms: vengeful, revengeful, nasty, avengeful, pluckcrow, revengeful, vengeable, vengeful

2. obsoletePunitive.

   Synonyms: punishing, punitory, castigatory, punishmental, punitive, punitory, vindicatory