mal·e·dic·tion

(măl′ĭ-dĭk′shən)

a. The calling down of a curse.

b. A curse.

2. Slander.

mal′e·dic′to·ry (-dĭk′tə-rē) adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

malediction

(ˌmælɪˈdɪkʃən)

1. the utterance of a curse against someone or something

2. slanderous accusation or comment

[C15: from Latin maledictiō a reviling, from male ill + dīcere to speak]

ˌmaleˈdictive, ˌmaleˈdictory adj

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

mal•e•dic•tion

(ˌmæl ɪˈdɪk ʃən)

n.

a curse; imprecation.

[1400–50]

mal`e•dic′tive, mal`e•dic′to•ry (-tə ri) adj.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

malediction - the act of calling down a curse that invokes evil (and usually serves as an insult); "he suffered the imprecations of the mob"

imprecation

curse, execration, condemnation - an appeal to some supernatural power to inflict evil on someone or some group

malediction

noun

A denunciation invoking a wish or threat of evil or injury:

anathema, curse, damnation, execration, imprecation.

Archaic: malison.

Translations

malédiction

maledizione

malediction

[ˌmælɪˈdɪkʃən] N → maldición f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

malediction

n → Fluch m, → Verwünschung f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

When from dark error's subjugation My words of passionate exhortation Had wrenched thy fainting spirit free; And writhing prone in thine affliction Thou didst recall with malediction The vice that had encompassed thee: And when thy slumbering conscience, fretting By recollection's torturing flame, Thou didst reveal the hideous setting Of thy life's current ere I came: When suddenly I saw thee sicken, And weeping, hide thine anguished face, Revolted, maddened, horror-stricken, At memories of foul disgrace.

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He searched about in his mind for an ade- quate malediction for the indefinite cause, the thing upon which men turn the words of final blame.

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More than eight hundred miles of hard travelling, and many weary days, had it cost them; and the sufferings connected with it rendered it hateful in their remembrance, so that the Canadian voyageurs always spoke of it as "La maudite riviere enragee" - the accursed mad river - thus coupling a malediction with its name.

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I have reason to know that a local friend of ours (on whom I beg to bestow a passing but a hearty malediction, with the kind permission of my reverend friend) sneaks to and fro, and dodges up and down.

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Five minutes afterwards the piano resounded to the touch of Mademoiselle d'Armilly's fingers, and Mademoiselle Danglars was singing Brabantio's malediction on Desdemona.

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If only my malediction is needed for that, I bestow it upon him!

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I have not enumerated half the vexatious propensities of my pupils, or half the troubles resulting from my heavy responsibilities, for fear of trespassing too much upon the reader's patience; as, perhaps, I have already done; but my design in writing the few last pages was not to amuse, but to benefit those whom it might concern; he that has no interest in such matters will doubtless have skipped them over with a cursory glance, and, perhaps, a malediction against the prolixity of the writer; but if a parent has, therefrom, gathered any useful hint, or an unfortunate governess received thereby the slightest benefit, I am well rewarded for my pains.

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This was done and the leeches, both present and absent, were ordered to leave the places that they had infested within three days on pain of incurring "the malediction of God." In the voluminous records of this

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She echoed the maledictions that the occupants of the gallery showered on this individual when his lines compelled him to expose his extreme selfishness.

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He telleth it always in the third person, making believe he is too modest to glorify himself -- maledictions light upon him, misfortune be his dole!

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Fogg, he was much more restless, counting and recounting the days passed over, uttering maledictions when the train stopped, and accusing it of sluggishness, and mentally blaming Mr.

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Its original owner, for whom it was made, was my great-grandfather, Bramwell Olcott Bartine, a wealthy planter of Colonial Virginia, and as stanch a Tory as ever lay awake nights contriving new kinds of maledictions for the head of Mr.

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