Definition of "evil"

For a good while the Miss Brownings were kept in ignorance of the evil tongues that whispered hard words about Molly.

1864 August – 1866 January, [Elizabeth] Gaskell, chapter 47, in Wives and Daughters. An Every-day Story. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published 1866

He looked at her shapely person with something of the brazen and evil glance that had been so revolting to her in the eyes of those ruffians.

1916, Zane Grey, chapter 10, in The Border Legion‎, New York: Harper & Bros., page 147

“Before this, I never had any cause to suspect my wife of any conspiracy.” / “You mean it never crossed your mind that she might have been told to whisper evil thoughts in your ear at night?”

2006, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Wizard of the Crow, New York: Pantheon, Book Three, Section II, Chapter 3, p. 351

He tells secret dreams to strangers , imagines he can achieve art without discipline , regards all boundaries as evil , ignores ancestors , wants comfort and merging , believes cunning is wrong , and as a scholar or artist doesn't […]

1989, Pilgrimage‎, volume 15, Human Sciences Press, page 7

Ah, what a sign it is of evil life,When death’s approach is seen so terrible.

1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene iii]

I had much trouble at first in breaking him of those evil habits his father had taught him to acquire […]

1848, Anne Brontë, chapter 41, in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall‎

To the rabbis who taught in the Jewish parochial schools, baseball was an evil waste of time […]

1967, Chaim Potok, chapter 1, in The Chosen‎, New York: Fawcett Columbine, published 2003, page 14

An Odoriferous Specifick […] is a Matter that takes away Diseases from the Sick, no otherwise then as Civet drives away the stinck of Ordure by its Odour; for you are to observe, That the Specifick doth permix it self with this evil Odour of the Dung; and the stink of the Dung cannot hurt, no[r] abide there […]

1660, John Harding (translator), Paracelsus his Archidoxis, London: W.S., Book 7, “Of an Odoriferous Specifick,” p. 100

He awoke in an evil temper […]

1897, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter 18, in The Invisible Man: A Grotesque Romance, New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers Publishers

It was an evil day, sticky and leaden: Oxiana looked as colourless and suburban as India.

1937, Robert Byron, The Road to Oxiana, London: Macmillan, Part V, “Mazar-i-Sherif,” p. 282

He herded them into a small and evil toilet and then through a window.

1958, Graham Greene, Our Man in Havana‎, Penguin, published 1979, Part Four, Chapter 1, p. 125

Everyone in the tiny, crowded, hot, and evil-smelling kitchen […] has been invited to participate in a moment of history.

1993, Carol Shields, chapter 1, in The Stone Diaries‎, Toronto: Random House of Canada, page 39

The owl shrieked at thy birth,—an evil sign;

c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene vi]

[…] he hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel:

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Deuteronomy 22:19

A little stay will bring some notice hither,For evil news rides post, while good news baits.

1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […]”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], page 89, lines 438-439

“ […] with bandits and robbers roving over the land in these evil times of famine and war, how can it be said that this one or that stole anything? Hunger makes thief of any man.”

1931, Pearl S. Buck, chapter 15, in The Good Earth‎, New York: Modern Library, published 1944, page 122

A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Matthew 7:18

The heart of the sons of men is full of evil.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Ecclesiastes 9:3

The preposterous altruism too! […] Resist not evil. It is an insane immolation of self—as bad intrinsically as fakirs stabbing themselves or anchorites warping their spines in caves scarcely large enough for a fair-sized dog.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVI, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company

IS ANYTHING more obvious than the presence of evil in the universe? Its nagging, prehensile tentacles project into every level of human existence. We may debate the origin of evil, but only a victim of superficial optimism would debate its reality. Evil is stark, grim, and colossally real.

1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., “The Death of Evil upon the Seashore”, in Strength to Love‎, New York: Pocket Books, published 1964, page 71

evils which our own misdeeds have wrought

1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,

The evil that men do lives after them.

1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene ii]

[The disease]Tis call'd the Euill.

c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene iii]

He [Edward the Confessor] was the first that touched for the evil.

1711 March 24 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “TUESDAY, March 13, 1710–1711”, in The Spectator, number 329; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume IV, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853

O what of Gods then boots it to be borne, / If old Aveugles ſonnes ſo euill heare?

1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part I (books I–III), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonbie, stanza ii, page 66

And many ſhall follow their pernicious wayes, by reaſon of whom the way of trueth ſhall be euill ſpoken of:

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], 2 Peter 2:2

But (as the Poet ſaith) Malè ſarta gratia, nequicquam coit, & reſcinditur: Friendſhip, that is but euill peeced, will not ioine cloſe, but falleth aſunder againe:

1570, William Lambard, quoting Horace, A Perambulation of Kent‎, published 1596, page 341