vicious

来自vice,罪行，邪恶，引申词义恶性的。比较virtuous circle.

vicious (adj.)

late 14c., "unwholesome, impure, of the nature of vice, wicked, corrupting, pernicious, harmful;" of a text, "erroneous, corrupt," from Anglo-French vicious, Old French vicios "wicked, cunning, underhand; defective, illegal" (Modern French vicieux), from Latin vitiosus (Medieval Latin vicious) "faulty, full of faults, defective, corrupt; wicked, depraved," from vitium "fault" (see vice (n.1)).

Meaning "inclined to be savage or dangerous" is first recorded 1711 (originally of animals, especially horses); that of "full of spite, bitter, severe" is from 1825. In law, "marred by some inherent fault" (late 14c.), hence also this sense in logic (c. 1600), as in vicious circle in reasoning (c. 1792, Latin circulus vitiosus), which was given a general sense of "a situation in which action and reaction intensify one another" by 1839. Related: Viciously (mid-14c., "sinfully"); viciousness.

1. A vicious price war between manufacturers has cut margins to the bone.

制造商之间的恶性价格战已将利润削减到了最低。

2. That second night, Sid Vicious chucked a bottle at the stage.

第二天晚上，席德·维瑟斯朝舞台上扔了个瓶子。

3. He was a vicious gossip.

他总是喜欢说别人的坏话。

4. She was furtive and vicious by temperament.

她本来做事就偷偷摸摸，心肠狠毒。

5. a vicious slander on the company's good name

对那家公司良好声誉的恶意诽谤