See Also: pernicious(dictionary)
pernicious(2)(dictionary)
pernicious(1)(dictionary)
Pernicious(health)
pernicious(medicine)
pernicious anaemia(dictionary)
pernicious anemia(encyclopedia)
Pernicious anemia(health)
Anemia, pernicious(health)
pernicious vomiting(medicine)

pernicious(1) (iou)



pernicious adjective1. LME.
[from Latin perniciosus, from pernicies destruction, formed as PER-1 + nec-, nex death, destruction: see -IOUS.]
Tending to destroy, kill, or injure; destructive, ruinous; (rapidly) fatal. LME.
Orig. esp. of a person: wicked; villainous. Now gen., damaging, harmful; undesirable. LME.
P. G. Wodehouse But for her pernicious influence, Ruth would have been an ordinary sweet American girl. J. Uglow She condemns the power of fiction to embody fantasy as straightforwardly pernicious. Journal of Navigation Garlic was thought to have a particularly pernicious effect.
Special collocations: pernicious anaemia a form of anaemia, formerly always fatal, resulting from vitamin B12 deficiency, esp. caused by lack of the intrinsic factor which enables its absorption. pernicious contrary a substance, difficult to detect in the raw material, which inhibits the pulping of waste paper or cardboard.
perniciously adverb M16.
perniciousness noun L16.