villainy
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English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology 1[edit]
From Middle English vileinie, vileynye, from Anglo-Norman vilenie, from Old French vilanie.
Noun[edit]
villainy (countable and uncountable, plural villainies)
- (uncountable) Evil or wicked character or behaviour.
- 1977, Star Wars, spoken by Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness):
- You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.
- (countable) A wicked or treacherous act.
- (uncountable, obsolete) Ill-treatment, indignity, degrading or shameful treatment of someone.
- (uncountable, obsolete) Disgrace, ignominy.
- (uncountable, obsolete) The state of being a villein or serf, and by extension servitude or low estate in life.
- (uncountable, obsolete) Boorishness, rudeness, bad cultivation or manners.
Synonyms[edit]
Etymology 2[edit]
Adjective[edit]
villainy (comparative more villainy, superlative most villainy)
- Characteristic of a villain.
- 1839, Robert Folkestone Williams, The Youth of Shakspeare:
- We are all villainy— very villainy, as I am a Christian man.
- 1993, William Froug, Screenwriting Tricks of the Trade, page 51:
- Apparently, in both domestic and foreign movies, you can't get too villainy to displease an audience.
- 2019, Greg Gutfeld, The Gutfeld Monologues, page 166:
- Yet here, actual reality offers you the worst villain ever and you say, sorry, he is too villainy.
Synonyms[edit]
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Anglo-Norman
- English terms derived from Old French
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English words suffixed with -y
- English adjectives
- en:Narratology