Malignant

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. A man of extrems enmity or evil intentions. Hooker.

2. One of the adherents of Charles L. or Charles LL.; -- so called by the opposite party.

Part of speech: adjective (a.)

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. 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.