vindictive

Etymology

From Latin vindicta (“vengeance”) + -ive.

adj

  1. Having a tendency to seek revenge when wronged, vengeful.
    The vindictive mockery in her voice made his brain quiver. 1920, D. H. Lawrence, chapter 18, in Women in Love, archived from the original on 2012-04-09
    The victors will exact vindictive penalties and the losers of course will undertake to pay, but none of them realizes that money is going to do the most extraordinary things to them when they begin upon that. 1933, H. G. Wells, The Shape of Things to Come, archived from the original on 2012-03-29
  2. (obsolete) punitive

Attribution / Disclaimer All definitions come directly from Wiktionary using the Wiktextract library. We do not edit or curate the definitions for any words, if you feel the definition listed is incorrect or offensive please suggest modifications directly to the source (wiktionary/vindictive), any changes made to the source will update on this page periodically.