| / English Dictionary |
VINDICTIVE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Showing malicious ill will and a desire to hurt; motivated by spite
Example:
a vindictive man will look for occasions for resentment
Synonyms:
despiteful; spiteful; vindictive
Classified under:
Similar:
malicious (having the nature of or resulting from malice)
Derivation:
vindictiveness (a malevolent desire for revenge)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Disposed to seek revenge or intended for revenge
Example:
punishments...essentially vindictive in their nature
Synonyms:
revengeful; vengeful; vindictive
Classified under:
Similar:
unforgiving (unwilling or unable to forgive or show mercy)
Derivation:
vindictiveness (a malevolent desire for revenge)
Context examples:
My disposition is not so bad as you think: I am passionate, but not vindictive.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
His dark, handsome, aquiline features were convulsed into a spasm of vindictive hatred, which had set his dead face in a terribly fiendish expression.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
It was strange: a bold, vindictive, and haughty gentleman seemed somehow in the power of one of the meanest of his dependants; so much in her power, that even when she lifted her hand against his life, he dared not openly charge her with the attempt, much less punish her for it.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
The course of events in London did not run so well as I had hoped, for the trial of the Moriarty gang left two of its most dangerous members, my own most vindictive enemies, at liberty.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
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