E'VIL, a. e'vl. [Heb. to be unjust or injurious, to defraud.]

1. Having bad qualities of a natural kind; mischievous; having qualities which tend to injury, or to produce mischief. Some evil beast hath devoured him. Gen. xxxvii.
2. Having bad qualities of a moral kind; wicked; corrupt; perverse; wrong; as, evil thoughts; evil deeds; evil speaking; an evil generation. Scripture.
3. Unfortunate; unhappy; producing sorrow, distress, injury or calamity; as, evil tidings; evil arrows; evil days. Scripture.

1. Not well; not with justice or propriety; unsuitably. Evil it beseems thee. Shak.
2. Not virtuously; not innocently.
3. Not happily; unfortunately. It went evil with his house. Deut.
4. Injuriously; not kindly. The Egyptians evil entreated us, and afflicted us. Deut. In composition, evil, denoting something bad or wrong, is often contracted to ill.

1. Evil is natural or moral. Natural evil is any thing which produces pain, distress, loss or calamity, or which in any way disturbs the peace, impairs the happiness, or destroys the perfection of natural beings. Moral evil is any deviation of a moral agent from the rules of conduct prescribed to him by God, or by legitimate human authority; or it is any violation of the plain principles of justice and rectitude. There are also evils called civil, which affect injuriously the peace or prosperity of a city or state; and political evils, which injure a nation in its public capacity. All wickedness, all crimes, all violations of law and right are moral evils. Diseases are natural evils, but they often proceed from moral evils.
2. Misfortune; mischief; injury. There shall no evil befall thee. Ps. xci. A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself. Prov. xxii.
3. Depravity; corruption of heart, or disposition to commit wickedness; malignity. The heart of the sons of men is full of evil. Eccles. ix.
4. Malady; as, the king's evil or scrofula.

1. Having qualities tending to injury and mischief; having a nature or properties which tend to badness; mischievous; not good; worthless or deleterious; poor; as, an evil beast; and evil plant; an evil crop.
   
   

   A good tree can not bring forth evil fruit. Matt. vii. 18.

2. Anything which impairs the happiness of a being or deprives a being of any good; anything which causes suffering of any kind to sentient beings; injury; mischief; harm; -- opposed to good.
   
   

   Evils which our own misdeeds have wrought. Milton.

   The evil that men do lives after them. Shak.

3. In an evil manner; not well; ill; badly; unhappily; injuriously; unkindly.
   
   
   Shak.

   It went evil with his house. 1 Chron. vii. 23.

   The Egyptians evil entreated us, and affected us. Deut. xxvi. 6.

4. Having or exhibiting bad moral qualities; morally corrupt; wicked; wrong; vicious; as, evil conduct, thoughts, heart, words, and the like.
   
   

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

5. Moral badness, or the deviation of a moral being from the principles of virtue imposed by conscience, or by the will of the Supreme Being, or by the principles of a lawful human authority; disposition to do wrong; moral offence; wickedness; depravity.
   
   

   The heart of the sons of men is full of evil. Eccl. ix. 3.

6. Producing or threatening sorrow, distress, injury, or calamity; unpropitious; calamitous; as, evil tidings; evil arrows; evil days.
   
   

   Because he hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel. Deut. xxii. 19.

   The owl shrieked at thy birth -- an evil sign. Shak.

   Evil news rides post, while good news baits. Milton.

   Evil eye, an eye which inflicts injury by some magical or fascinating influence. It is still believed by the ignorant and superstitious that some persons have the supernatural power of injuring by a look.

   It almost led him to believe in the evil eye. J. H. Newman.

   -- Evil speaking, speaking ill of others; calumny; censoriousness. -- The evil one, the Devil; Satan.

   * Evil is sometimes written as the first part of a compound (with or without a hyphen). In many cases the compounding need not be insisted on. Examples: Evil doer or evildoer, evil speaking or evil-speaking, evil worker, evil wishing, evil-hearted, evil-minded.

   Syn. -- Mischieveous; pernicious; injurious; hurtful; destructive; wicked; sinful; bad; corrupt; perverse; wrong; vicious; calamitous.

7. malady or disease; especially in the phrase king's evil, the scrofula.
   
   
   [R.] Shak.

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