villainy
English
Etymology 1
From Middle English vileinie, vileynye, from Anglo-Norman vilenie, from Old French vilanie.
Noun
villainy (countable and uncountable, plural villainies)
- Evil or wicked character or behaviour.
- A wicked or treacherous act.
Synonyms
Etymology 2
Adjective
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.
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 suffixed with -y
- English adjectives
- English terms with quotations