flagitious

Definitions

  • WordNet 3.6
    • adj flagitious shockingly brutal or cruel "murder is an atrocious crime","a grievous offense against morality","a grievous crime","no excess was too monstrous for them to commit"
    • adj flagitious extremely wicked, deeply criminal "a flagitious crime","heinous accusations"
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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
    • Flagitious Characterized by scandalous crimes or vices; as, flagitious times. "A sentence so flagitiously unjust."
    • Flagitious Disgracefully or shamefully criminal; grossly wicked; scandalous; shameful; -- said of acts, crimes, etc. "Debauched principles and flagitious practices."
    • Flagitious Guilty of enormous crimes; corrupt; profligate; -- said of persons.
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Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
    • flagitious Shamefully wicked; atrocious; scandalous; flagrant; grossly criminal: as, a flagitious action or crime.
    • flagitious Guilty of scandalous crimes; profligate; corrupt; abandoned.
    • flagitious Marked or characterized by scandalous crimes or vices: as, a flagitious record.
    • flagitious Synonyms Execrable, Villainous, etc. (see nefarious); heinous, shameful, infamous, shocking, vile.
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Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
    • adj Flagitious fla-jish′us grossly wicked: guilty of enormous crimes
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Etymology

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
L. flagitiosus, fr. flagitium, a shameful or disgraceful act, orig., a burning desire, heat of passion, from flagitare, to demand hotly, fiercely; cf. flagrare, to burn, E. flagrant,
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
L. flagitiosus—flagitium, a disgraceful act—flagrāre, to burn.

Usage

In literature:

For the ambiguous advantages which overgrown wealth and flagitious tyranny have to bestow?
"Wieland; or The Transformation" by Charles Brockden Brown
In this perplexity Ashley and Clifford proposed a flagitious breach of public faith.
"The History of England from the Accession of James II." by Thomas Babington Macaulay
To do so would be the most flagitious injustice.
"The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, Vol. 4 (of 4)" by Thomas Babington Macaulay
Never was there a more flagitious instance of corruption.
"The History of England from the Accession of James II." by Thomas Babington Macaulay
But I will now cite another instance of the advocacy of repudiation by Mr. Jefferson Davis, still more flagitious than that of Mississippi.
"Continental Monthly, Volume 5, Issue 4" by Various
The smooth sciolist Stellato rallied his weak wits and uttered a cry of wonder at such flagitious heresy.
"The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 80, June, 1864" by Various
On the Olympian heights, if punishment At last hath seized on those flagitious men.
"The Odyssey of Homer" by Homer
Coventry stigmatized them as marking especial and flagitious ingratitude.
"Sir Walter Ralegh" by William Stebbing
Four months more brought him to the end of his flagitious career.
"Historic Tales, Volume 11 (of 15)" by Charles Morris
Up to that period, so far as government was concerned, a man might have been unprincipled and flagitious.
"Popular Education" by Ira Mayhew
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