Ma*lig"nant (?), a. [L. malignans, -antis, p. pr. of malignare, malignari, to do or make maliciously. See Malign, and cf. Benignant.]

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.

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.

 

© Webster 1913.


Ma*lig"nant (?), n.

1.

A man of extrems enmity or evil intentions.

Hooker.

2. Eng. Hist.

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

 

© Webster 1913.

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