WordWeight : Weighing the Words

Pronunciation : Ma*lig"nant
Part of Speech : a.
Etymology : [L. malignans, -antis, p. pr. of malignare, malignari, to do or make maliciously. See Malign, and cf. Benignant.]
Definition : 1. Disposed to do harm, inflict suffering, or cause distress; actuated by extreme malevolence or enmity; virulently inimical; bent on evil; malicious. A malignant and a turbaned Turk. Shak.

2. Characterized or caused by evil intentions; pernicious. "Malignant care." Macaulay. Some malignant power upon my life. Shak. Something deleterious and malignant as his touch. Hawthorne.

3. (Med.)

Defn: Tending to produce death; threatening a fatal issue; virulent; as, malignant diphtheria. Malignant pustule (Med.), a very contagious disease, transmitted to man from animals, characterized by the formation, at the point of reception of the virus, of a vesicle or pustule which first enlarges and then breaks down into an unhealthy ulcer. It is marked by profound exhaustion and usually fatal. Called also charbon, and sometimes, improperly, anthrax.
Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913

Pronunciation : Ma*lig"nant
Part of Speech : n.
Definition : 1. A man of extrems enmity or evil intentions. Hooker.

2. (Eng. Hist.)

Defn: One of the adherents of Charles L. or Charles LL.; -- so called by the opposite party.
Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913