▪ I. malice, n.
(ˈmælɪs)
Forms: 4 malyes, maleys, 4–5 malis, malece, 4, 6 maliss, maleyce, 4–6 malys, malyce, 5 malyhs, mailyeis, 5–6 malesse, malise, malles, 6 mallyce, maleis(e, 6–7 mallice, 3– malice.
[a. F. malice (recorded from 12th c.), ad. L. malitia, f. mal-us bad. (Cf. Sp., Pg. malicia, It. malizia.)
Some of the early forms are coincident with those of malease; in some senses the two words seem to have been sometimes confused.]
† 1. Bad quality, badness; chiefly in moral sense, wickedness. Obs.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 1555 Mikel malice was first in man Bot neuer forwit sua mikel as þan. a 1340 Hampole Psalter v. 1 Halykirke þat prayes to be departid fra þe malice of þe warld. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 518 Al is þe mynde of þe man to malyce enclyned. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints l. (Katerine) 74 Scho ȝed and sad..sir king, Resone requeris..þat þu knaw þi malyes & with-draw now sic seruice fra þis goddis fals, þat þe dissawis. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. ii. (1495) 596 To make a wylde tree chaunge out of malyce in to goodnes. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) ix. 33 Þai er..full of all maner of wickedness and malice. c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. i. 264 The malice of that lond, or cause of drede, That wyntir with his shouris may of dryue. 1477 Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 14 Make your children lerne good in their youthe or they falle to malice. 1594 Carew Huarte's Exam. Wits (1596) 278 In man there is no power which hath tokens to descry the goodnesse or malice of his object. 1600 Abp. Abbot Exp. Jonah 19 When..they returned to their malice as a dog to his vomit, it [Nineveh] was destroyed. 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. i. v. §1 It seemeth the children of time do take after the nature and malice of the father. |
† 2. Power to harm, harmfulness; harmful action or effect. Of a disease, a poison, etc.: Virulence.
| c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 457 Neþer þe word of þer prelat ne þe word of þer somenour han so myche maliss wiþ hem þat [etc.]. 1390 Gower Conf. I. 266 The water of a welle Of fyr abateth the malice. 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) I. 339 Venym and poysoun..leseþ his malys anon as he passeþ þe myddel of þe see. 1528 Paynel Salerne's Regim. O iv b, Suche wyne doth alay the malice of y⊇ meate. 1544 T. Phaer Regim. Lyfe (1560) S viij b, It is a singular remedy, to remove y⊇ malice [of a canker] in a short while. 1555 W. Watreman Fardle Facions ii. i. 114 Myrrhe, whose smoke is so unholsome, that excepte thei withstode the malice therof with the perfume of styrax [etc.]. 1595 Shakes. John ii. i. 251 Our Cannons malice vainly shall be spent. 1614 Raleigh Hist. World II. v. iii. §6. 374 The malice of a great Armie is broken..in a great Siege. a 1619 M. Fotherby Atheom. ii. v. §4 (1622) 242 The malice of the sicknesse surpassing all the helpe of the most approved medicines. 1655 Culpepper, etc. Riverius iv. vii. 116 These Evacuations..come..from the malice of the matter of the Disease. 1685 Dryden Threnod. August. 177 Undaunted Cæsar underwent The malice of their [sc. the physicians'] art. |
† 3. Astrol. The baleful influence of certain stars.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. viii. xxii. (Helmingham MS.), Þe malice of a malicious sterre is y-temprid..by presence of a goodly sterre. 1563 T. Hill Art Garden. (1593) 20 Throgh some malice of the celestial bodies. |
4. The desire to injure another person; active ill-will or hatred. In mod. use sometimes in weaker sense: Sportively ‘mischievous’ intent, desire to tease (cf. F. malice).
| 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 12027 He ne dude it vor non vuel ne malice bi speke er. 1390 Gower Conf. I. 62 He that was a Lomb beforn Is thanne a Wolf, and thus malice Under the colour of justice Is hid. c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 23 The wolf of malys..Upon the lambe compleynyd ageyn reson. 1477 Surtees Misc. (1890) 35 A man..was notyd and diffamyd..be veray malesse, y{supt} he shud be a Skotte. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems lix. 3 A refyng sone of rakyng Muris Hes magellit my making, throw his maliss. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iii. ii. 23 God forbid any Malice should preuayle. 1601 Bp. W. Barlow Serm. Paules Crosse Pref. 7 Malice marres logike and charitie both. 1691 Hartcliffe Virtues 381 When we think of..the malice of our Spiritual Adversaries; we are apt to despond. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. xix. II. 132 He furnished the malice of his enemies with the arms of truth. 1825 Coleridge Aids Refl. xxxi. (1836) 100 The slanders..may be the implements, not the inventions of Malice. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. ix. II. 495 Then the archbishop, with that gentle and temperate malice which inflicts the deepest wounds, said [etc.]. 1871 Morley Voltaire (1886) 5 The rank vocabulary of malice and hate. |
b. Occas. personified.
| 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. i. v. 196 Yet (by the verie phangs of malice, I sweare) I am not that I play. 1781 Cowper Hope 559 The blot For every dart that malice ever shot. |
c. Phrase. to bear malice: to feel ill-will; now usually, to cherish revengeful or unfriendly feelings on account of some injury. Const. to or dative; also † against, † toward.
| 1530 Palsgr. 450/1, I beare grutche or malyce agaynst a person, je porte malice. 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 112, I have tolde you..howe Duke George of Saxony, bare malice. 1572 Lament. Lady Scot. 43 in Satir. Poems Reform. xxxiii, The malice greit, that ilk to vther beiris. 1613 Shakes. Hen. VIII, ii. i. 62 The Law I beare no mallice for my death. 1838 Lytton Calderon iii, I bear no malice to him for that, your highness. a 1846 Landor Imag. Conv. Wks. I. 15, I never bear malice toward those who try to reduce me to their own dimensions. 1875 Mrs. Randolph W. Hyacinth I. 72, I believe you bear malice still. |
d. fig. Attributed to fortune, or impersonal agencies.
| 1660 F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 268 Often exposed to the malice of weather, but more to the malice of men. 1797 Mrs. Radcliffe Italian ii. (1826) 15 He defied the utmost malice of future fortune. a 1859 De Quincey Dream Fugue Wks. 1897 XIII. 320 The deeps opened ahead in malice to receive her. |
¶ e. Misused for: Anger. Obs. rare—1.
| 1538 Bale God's Promises in Dodsley O. Pl. (1780) I. 19 Tell me, blessed Lorde, where wyll thy great malyce light. |
† 5. Malicious conduct; a malicious act or device.
| 1390 Gower Conf. III. 207 A thousendfold welmore he soghte Thanne afterward to do malice. 14.. Story of Alexander 7 in Wars Alex. (E.E.T.S.) 279 But I schewe to you þat I hate frawdez & maleces. 1413 Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton 1483) i. ii. 3 The performyng of malyce standyth nought in thy power, but the purposyng of malyce is thyne owne properte. c 1440 York Myst. xvii. 317 Herowde the kyng has malise ment. 1454 Paston Lett. I. 273 Thes vengeable malics don to hir and me. c 1470 Henry Wallace ix. 562 He..now agayn begynnys a malice new. 1607 Shakes. Cor. ii. ii. 36 To report otherwise, were a Mallice, that..would plucke..rebuke from euery Eare that heard it. 1669 R. Montagu in Buccleuch MS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.) I. 449 The French look upon this as an art and malice of the Spaniard to destroy the trade. |
6. Law. a. Wrongful intention generally. b. That kind of evil intent which constitutes the aggravation of guilt distinctive of certain offences (esp. of murder), or which deprives some act, on the face of it unlawful, of a justification or excuse that might otherwise have been allowed.
The first meaning mentioned under b was originally expressed by the AF. phrase malice purpensé or prepense, which in modern legal language appears as malice prepense (see prepense a.) and in the translated form malice aforethought. In early use the phrase occurs in many anglicized forms: malice prepensed, malice purpensed, malice pretensed (also prepensed, etc. malice); occasional variants found in non-technical writers are malice propense (17th c.), malice prepensive (Fielding), malice perpended (Charles Lamb). For examples see the various adjs.
See also quots. 1825–1901 below, and quot. 1889 s.v. maliciously 4. It is not possible to frame any such general definition as would show what legally constitutes ‘malice’ or proof of ‘malice’ in particular kinds of cases.
| 1547 Act 1 Edw. VI, c. 12 §9 No parsone..convicted of murder of malyse prepensed. Ibid., Or shall stande willfullie or of malyce muett. a 1625 Sir H. Finch Law (1636) 215 Murder is Man-slaughter upon former malice: which wee call prepensed malice. 1670–1 Act 22 & 23 Chas. II, c. 1 §6 If any person..on purpose and of malice forethought..shall [etc.]. 1716 W. Hawkins Pleas Crown i. 88 The Murther of a Person by one who was his Servant, upon Malice conceived during the Service. 1817 W. Selwyn Law Nisi Prius (ed. 4) II. 997 To support this action, malice..must be alleged and proved. 1825 Justice Bayley Barnewall & Cresswell Rep. IV. 255 Malice in common acceptation means ill-will against a person, but in its legal sense it means a wrongful act done intentionally without just cause or excuse. 1871 W. Markby Elem. Law (1874) §226 In the best known definitions of malice it is scarcely distinguishable from intention. 1898 W. F. Craies in Encycl. Laws Eng. VIII. 77 The meaning of the term malice (malitia) in English law has been a question of much difficulty and controversy... It certainly has different meanings with respect to responsibility for civil wrongs and responsibility for crime. 1901 Sir F. Pollock Law of Torts (ed. 6) 24 Such abuse [of privilege allowed by law on special occasions and for special purposes, where the act is done not in good faith or for the advancement of justice, but from evil motives such as personal enmity] is called ‘malice’ or ‘express malice’, and deprives the act of justification... The words ‘malice’, ‘malicious’, and ‘maliciously’ were formerly used in pleading, and thence in forensic and judicial language, in many places where they were superfluous. |
▪ II. † ˈmalice, a. Obs. rare.
[f. prec. Cf. OF. malicement maliciously.]
Full of wrath or ill-will.
| c 1475 Partenay 3446 So inly malice, full of wrath and yre. Ibid. 3537 But Raymounde malice And full angry was. |
▪ III. † ˈmalice, v. Obs.
[f. malice n.]
1. trans. To regard with malice; to seek or desire to injure.
| a 1547 Surrey Compl. louer that defied loue in Tottel's Misc. (Arb.) 8 Thou blinded god (quoth I) forgeue me this offense, Vnwillingly [ed. 2 Vnwittingly] I went about to malice thy pretense. 1552 Latimer Serm. 3rd Sund. aft. Epiph. (1584) 314 They would not beleue in hym, but despised and maliced him. 1599 B. Jonson Ev. Man out of Hum. v. vii. (1600) Q iiij b, I am so farre from malicing their states That I begin to pittie them. 1600 Holland Livy xlii. xv. 1124 But above all other he maliced Eumenes most [L. Eumeni ante omnes infestus erat]. 1621 Lady M. Wroth Urania 183 At last his sister grew to malice his respect to me. 1653 Baxter Chr. Concord 47, I know they will malice our Union in this Country. 1659 Fuller App. Inj. Innoc. (1840) 299 For the Papists, though I malice not their persons,..yet I do..dislike their errors. 1686 W. de Britaine Hum. Prud. xvii. 80 None are less Maliced or more applauded than he, who is thought rather happy than able. 1694 E. Elys in Lett. Sev. Subj. 94 To have an Aversion to the Notion..is to Malice or Hate God. |
2. intr. To entertain malice. Also const. at.
| 1587 Turberv. Trag. T. (1837) 243 Yet fortune seemde to grutche And malice at her featurd shape. 1592 Kyd Sp. Trag. iii. i, My guiltles death will be aueng'd on thee,..that hath malisde thus. |
Hence ˈmaliced ppl. a., ˈmalicing vbl. n.
| 1601 B. Jonson Poetaster Induct. 10 Your forc't stings Would hide them selues within his malic't sides. 1604 Daniel Funeral Poem Earl Devonsh., Without any private malicing, Or public grievance. a 1640 W. Fenner Sacrifice Faithf. (1648) 50 Go on in drinking, whoring,..and dicing, hating and malicing, fretting and chafing. 1643 ‘F. Greville’ Five Yrs. Jas. I 73 It concerneth not onely the destruction of the maliced man, but of every man. |
▪ IV. malice
variant of malease Obs.