wicked

English

Etymology 1

1225–75 Middle English wikked, wikke, an alteration of wicke, adjectival use of Old English wicca (“wizard, sorcerer”), from Proto-Germanic *wikkô (“necromancer, sorcerer”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: wĭkʹĭd, IPA^(key): /ˈwɪkɪd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adjective

wicked (comparative wickeder or more wicked, superlative wickedest or most wicked)

1. Evil or mischievous by nature.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 6, in The China Governess‎^[1]:

     ‘[…] I remember a lady coming to inspect St. Mary's Home where I was brought up and seeing us all in our lovely Elizabethan uniforms we were so proud of, and bursting into tears all over us because “it was wicked to dress us like charity children”. […]’.

2. (slang) Excellent; awesome; masterful

   That was a wicked guitar solo, bro!

3. (Britain, dialectal, obsolete) Active; brisk.

Usage notes

• Nouns to which "wicked" is often applied: witch, person, man, woman, angel, deed, act, pleasure, delight, game, way, night, word.

Synonyms

• (evil or mischievous): evil, immoral, malevolent, malicious, nefarious, twisted, villainous,#; See also Thesaurus:evil
• (slang: excellent; awesome): awesome, bad, cool, dope, excellent, far out, groovy, hot, rad; See also Thesaurus:excellent

Derived terms

• wickedly
• wickedness
• wicked tongue

Translations

evil or mischevous

• Arabic: شِرِير‎‎ (ar) (širīr)
• Armenian: չար (hy) (čʿar)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 邪惡 (zh), 邪恶 (zh) (xié'è), 調皮 (zh), 调皮 (zh) (tiáopí) (mischievous)

• Coptic: ϩⲟⲟⲩ (hoou)
• Czech: podlý (cs)
• Danish: syndig
• Dutch: kwaadaardig (nl), slecht (nl)
• Egyptian: (ḏw)
• Esperanto: malafabla, pekema
• Finnish: ilkeä (fi), häijy (fi), paha (fi), pahanilkinen
• French: méchant (fr) m, méchante (fr) f
• Friulian: cjâtif, trist
• German: böse (de)
• Greek: κακός (el) (kakós)

  Ancient Greek: πονηρός m (ponērós)

• Hungarian: gonosz (hu)
• Italian: malvagio (it) m, malvagia f, cattivo (it), diabolico (it), perverso (it), nefasto (it)
• Japanese: 邪悪 (じゃあく, jaaku), 意地悪い (いじわるい, ijiwarui), 腕白 (わんぱく, wanpaku) (mischievous)
• Korean: 나쁜 (ko) (nappeun)

• Latin: malus (la)
• Latvian: ļauns
• Maore Comorian: -a peu, -ovu
• Maori: kino (mi), kikino
• Ngazidja Comorian: -a peu
• Persian: شرور‎‎ (fa) (šarur)
• Polish: nikczemny (pl), podły (pl)
• Portuguese: mau (pt) m, má (pt) f, malvado (pt) m, bárbaro (pt) m
• Romanian: rău (ro) m, n, răutăcios (ro) m, n, hain (ro) m
• Russian: злой (ru) (zloj), зло́бный (ru) (zlóbnyj), озорно́й (ru) (ozornój) (mischievous), по́длый (ru) (pódlyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: olc, meallta
• Spanish: malvado (es), avieso (es) m
• Swahili: -baya
• Swedish: elak (sv), syndig (sv)
• Tachawit: abcaɛ
• Thai: ชั่วร้าย
• Tok Pisin: nogut
• Turkish: lanetli (tr), uğursuz (tr)
• West Frisian: glûpsk

slang: awesome

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 棒 (zh) (bàng), 了不起 (zh) (liǎobuqǐ), 酷 (zh) (kù)

• Czech: hustý (cs)
• Danish: fedt
• Finnish: siisti (fi), paha (fi)
• French: génial (fr), sensass (fr), super (fr), mortel (fr), chanmé (fr)
• German: super (de), genial (de), toll (de), geil (de)

• Italian: diabolico (it), fantastico (it), figata (it)
• Japanese: 素晴らしい (ja) (すばらしい, subarashii), 素敵 (ja) (すてき, suteki), 凄い (ja) (すごい, sugoi)
• Portuguese: legal (pt), da hora (pt) (slang), muito louco (slang)
• Russian: потряса́ющий (ru) (potrjasájuščij), круто́й (ru) (krutój), кла́ссный (ru) (klássnyj), клёвый (ru) (kljóvyj)
• Spanish: asombroso (es), bacán (es)
• Swedish: grym (sv), fet (sv)
• Thai: เจ๋ง (th) (jěng)

Adverb

wicked (not comparable)

1. (slang, New England, Britain) Very, extremely.

   The band we went to see the other night was wicked loud!

Synonyms

• hella, helluv (primarily Northern California slang)

Translations

slang: very

• Czech: děsně
• Finnish: pirun (fi), vähän (fi)
• French: trop (fr)

• Italian: maledettamente (it)
• Spanish: muy (es)
• Swedish: grymt (sv), fett (sv)

Noun

wicked pl (plural only)

1. People who are wicked.

Translations

people who are wicked

• Esperanto: malpiuloj
• Hebrew: רשעים‎‎ m (r'sha'ím)

• Italian: maligno (it) m, diavolo (it) m
• Yiddish: רשעים‎‎ m pl (r'shó'im)

Etymology 2

See wick.

Pronunciation

• enPR: wĭkt, IPA^(key): /wɪkt/

Verb

wicked

1. simple past tense and past participle of wick

Adjective

wicked (not comparable)

1. Having a wick.

   a two-wicked lamp

   • 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard

     Up went Moggy, with her thick-wicked kitchen candle, to seek repose; […]

2. (Britain, dialectal, chiefly Yorkshire) Infested with maggots.

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Middle English

Adjective

wicked

1. Alternative form of wikked