maleficentadj.

1678 R. Cudworth tr. Proclus in True Intellect. Syst. Universe i. iv. 219 That before the..Formation of the World, there was Unformed and disorderly Matter existing (from Eternity) together with a Maleficent Soul.

1786 S. Henley tr. W. Beckford Arabian Tale 187 Our people have fled; and left us, at the mercy of malificent [sic] spirits.

1793 Ann. Reg. 182 Principles maleficent to all government and order.

1835 W. Kirby On Power of God in Creation of Animals II. xvi. 86 Whether these animals are really as venemous and maleficent as they were said to be of old..seems very doubtful.

1846 G. Grote Hist. Greece I. i. xvi. 565 Beneficent and maleficent demons.

1867 G. A. Sala From Waterloo to Peninsula I. 255 It dispenses maleficent gases, and is always going out at the wrong time.

1900 W. L. Courtney Idea of Trag. 67 The mundane sphere in which the beneficent and maleficent forces are warring.

1916 G. Saintsbury Peace of Augustans ii. 96 The real Grub Street was no doubt their proper place; but it was quite unnecessary for the ideal one to exercise its maleficent spells on them.

1952 A. Wilson Hemlock & After ii. iii. 145 Beyond all the maleficent effects of chance..there were certain mischievous happenings which could not be entirely explained without the introduction of conscious hostile human agency.

1976 A. J. Toynbee & D. Ikeda Choose Life ii. vi. 184 The worship of the god Caesar and the goddess Rome was a less maleficent form of the worship of collective human power than the worship of Athena.

1760 tr. E. de Vattell Law Nations ii. v. §70 Let us apply to the unjust, what we have said above of a mischievous, or maleficent nation.

1811–31 J. Bentham Ess. Lang. in Wks. (1843) VIII. 316 The sort of act thus described is a maleficent act.

1829 J. Bentham Justice & Codification Petitions iii. 50 No man is maleficent without a motive.