wicked
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
English[edit]
Etymology 1[edit]
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[edit]
Adjective[edit]
wicked (comparative wickeder or more wicked, superlative wickedest or most wicked)
- Evil or mischievous by nature.
- Synonyms: evil, immoral, malevolent, malicious, nefarious, twisted, villainous; see also Thesaurus:evil
- 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”. […]’.
- 1989, Chris Isaak (lyrics and music), “Wicked Game”, in Heart Shaped World:
- What a wicked game to play, to make me feel this way / What a wicked thing to do, to let me dream of you / What a wicked thing to say, you never felt this way
- (slang) Excellent; awesome; masterful.
Usage notes[edit]
Use of "wicked" as an adjective rather than an adverb is considered an error in the Boston dialect.[1]
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
evil or mischevous
|
|
slang: awesome
|
Adverb[edit]
wicked (not comparable)
- (slang, New England, Britain) Very, extremely.
Translations[edit]
slang: very
Noun[edit]
wicked pl (plural only)
- People who are wicked.[2]
- Genuine cowards follow the wicked and cannot reliably sustain any virtue.
Translations[edit]
people who are wicked
Etymology 2[edit]
See wick.
Pronunciation[edit]
Verb[edit]
wicked
- simple past tense and past participle of wick
Adjective[edit]
wicked (not comparable)
- 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; […]
Derived terms[edit]
Etymology 3[edit]
See wick.
Pronunciation[edit]
Adjective[edit]
wicked
- (Britain, dialect, obsolete) Active; brisk.
- (Alternative form of) wick (Etymology 3 Adjective), as applying to inanimate objects only.
- (Britain, dialect, chiefly Yorkshire) Infested with maggots.
References[edit]
Middle English[edit]
Adjective[edit]
wicked
- Alternative form of wikked
Categories:
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *weyk- (separate)
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with quotations
- English slang
- English terms with usage examples
- English adverbs
- English uncomparable adverbs
- New England English
- British English
- English nouns
- English pluralia tantum
- English 1-syllable words
- English non-lemma forms
- English verb forms
- English uncomparable adjectives
- English dialectal terms
- English terms with obsolete senses
- Yorkshire English
- English degree adverbs
- English heteronyms
- English intensifiers
- English terms with unexpected syllabic -ed
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English adjectives