See Also: Malice(medicine)
malice(dictionary)
malice(dictionary)
Malice(law)
ACTUAL MALICE(law)
Malice Aforethought(law)
MALICE AFORETHOUGHT, pleadings(law)

malice (iou)



malice noun & verb. ME.
[Old & mod. French from Latin malitia, from malus bad: see -ICE1.]
A. noun.
Badness; esp. wickedness. ME-M17.
The desire to injure another person; active ill will or hatred. In later use also, the desire to tease. ME.
bear malice feel ill will, now usu. on account of some injury (foll. by against, to, toward(s)).
Malicious conduct; a malicious act or device. ME-M17.
Power to harm, harmful action or effect, malignancy; Astrology the baleful influence of certain stars. LME-L17.
Law. Wrongful intention, esp. as aggravating guilt in certain offences or depriving some act of a justification or excuse that might otherwise have been allowed. M16.
malice AFORETHOUGHT. malice prepense: see PREPENSE adjective 1. malice prepensed: see PREPENSE verb. stand mute of malice: see MUTE adjective 2.
b. verb trans. Bear malice towards. Long arch. & dial. M16.
maliceful adjective (chiefly dial.) malicious M17.