vitious

V4I1T1I1O1U1S1

A form of vicious — Violent, destructive and cruel.

Scrabble 10

Meanings

adjectivevitious (comparative more vitious, superlative most vitious)

comparative more vitious · superlative most vitious

  1. obsoleteObsolete form of vicious.

    And therefore ſo many, who are ſiniſtrous unto Good Actions, are Ambi-dexterous unto bad, and Vulcans in virtuous Paths, Achilleſes in vitious motions.

    c. 1670s (date written), Thomas Brown [i.e., Thomas Browne], “Sect[ion] XX”, in John Jeffery, editor, Christian Morals, […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] [A]t the University-Press, for Cornelius Crownfield printer to the University; and are to be sold by Mr. Knapton […]; and Mr. [John] Morphew […], published 1716, →OCLC, part III, page 109
    2 more examples

    Matter of doubt and dread suspitious, / That doth with curelesse care consume the hart, / Corrupts the stomacke with gall vitious, / Croscuts the liuer with internall smart, / And doth transfixe the soule with deathes eternall dart.

    1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

    For our Religion where was there a more ignorant, profane, and vitious clergy, learned in nothing but the antiquitie of thir pride, thir covetouſnesſs and ſuperſtition

    1649, J[ohn] Milton, chapter IX, in ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ [Eikonoklástēs] […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […], →OCLC, pages 79–80

Origin

  1. Latinvitiōsus
  2. Englishvitious

From Latin vitiōsus.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

vitious. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vitious

MLA

“vitious.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vitious. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “vitious,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vitious.

Source: vitious on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.