''malign'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''malign'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260727004347-00-⌔

malign - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Adjective

malign (comparative more malign, superlative most malign)

• Evil or malignant in disposition, nature, intent or influence.
  • ✤ Witchcraft may be by operation of malign spirits.¹
  • ✤ It may be true that such running is exceptional rather than normal; there are still innumerable checks of one kind or another, many of them, alas, directly or indirectly the result of engine failures; and bad coal has often a malign influence.²
• Malevolent.
  • ✤ He was sure they [the stars] were arranged in some order which had a secret and malign significance.³
• (oncology) Malignant.
  • ✤ a malign ulcer
  • ✤ * malign ulcers*⁴

Verb

malign (third-person singular simple present maligns, present participle maligning, simple past and past participle maligned)

• (transitive) To make defamatory statements about; to slander or traduce.
  • ✤ Synonyms: asperse, denigrate, libel; see also Thesaurus: defame
  • ✤ To be envied and shot at; to be maligned standing, and to be despised falling.⁵
  • ✤ The obvious joy of England’s players and supporters after that dramatic finale was another indicator that the Uefa Nations League, mocked and maligned at its inception, is capturing the public’s imagination.⁶
  • ✤ Yet, even as Democratic party leadership has decried this mass deportation plan and even as the bill maligns Democrats as victimizing Americans through its policy of “open borders,” 48 Democratic members of Congress voted for this GOP-backed bill.⁷
• (transitive, archaic) To treat with malice; to show hatred toward; to abuse; to wrong.
  • ✤ Synonyms: hate on, spite
  • ✤ The people practice what mischiefs and villainies they will against private men, whom they malign by stealing their goods, or murdering them.⁸

Etymology

From Middle English maligne, from Old French maligne, from Latin malignus, from malus (“bad”) + genus (“sort, kind”). Compare benign.

Pronunciation

• enPR: mə-līn’, IPA: /məˈlaɪn/
• Audio (US): 🔊
• Rhymes: -aɪn

Printed 2026-07-27.

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Footnotes

1. 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis[Bacon], “”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p] rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC: ↩

2. 1951 February, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 119: ↩

3. 1891, Ambrose Bierce, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge: ↩

4. 1625, Francis[Bacon], “Of Seditions and Troubles”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC: ↩

5. 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume, London: ↩

6. 2018 November 18, Phil McNulty, “England 2 - 1 Croatia”, in BBC Sport ‎${}^{[1]}$: ↩

7. 2025 January 19, Heba Gowayed, “The Laken Riley Act exposes Democrats’ hypocrisy on immigration”, in The Guardian ‎${}^{[2]}$, →ISSN: ↩

8. 1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: […] Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] [b] y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC: ↩

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