How to Use vicious in a Sentence

vicious

adjective
Definition of viciousnext
Synonyms for viciousnext
  • I know you're upset with her, but there's no need to be vicious.
  • This fight cuts to the heart of the often vicious disagreements about what role AI should have in our world.
    — Kate Knibbs, WIRED, 4 Sep. 2023
  • That top line is vicious, but the Huskies need not always rely on them.
    — Kat Cornetta, BostonGlobe.com, 13 Feb. 2023
  • Villains are one thing, but then there is the vicious, cruel and bath-avoidant Mary.
    — Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 27 June 2024
  • Years earlier the two had been in a vicious fight that put Abed in the hospital.
    — Nathan Thrall, Curbed, 25 Oct. 2023
  • The payments set a vicious cycle that shows no signs of slowing.
    — Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, 14 Nov. 2023
  • He’s known to fire off a vicious tweet (or whatever they’re called in the land of X) to call out the fearmongers.
    — Steven Levy, WIRED, 22 Dec. 2023
  • Over the next dozen years, Haitian rebels and French soldiers waged a vicious war of attrition.
    — Matthew Brown, Washington Post, 24 Mar. 2024
  • Again, don’t expect a high number of reps, but expect a vicious pump at the end your drop set.
    — Jeff Tomko, Men's Health, 24 Mar. 2023
  • An inability to sleep can be the start of a vicious cycle.
    — Yuliya Klochan, Health, 30 Mar. 2024
  • Soaring with the ball in his right hand, Jaquez threw down a vicious dunk over the helpless defender.
    — Austin Knoblauchassistant Editor, Los Angeles Times, 3 Mar. 2023
  • Uncle followed the first blow with even more vicious ones, and each crack of the whip sounded like thunder in my ears.
    — Mohammed Naseehu Ali, The New Yorker, 25 Mar. 2024
  • That battle is what led a British officer to compare the area to the insect with a vicious sting.
    — Evan Moore, Charlotte Observer, 13 June 2024
  • World & Nation The Ukraine war’s most vicious fight is happening in Bakhmut.
    — Nabih Bulos, Los Angeles Times, 25 Apr. 2023
  • These shortcomings despite the fact that heat is a vicious killer.
    — Sammy Roth, Los Angeles Times, 27 June 2024
  • The late Tony Siragusa was amusing but could be vicious at times.
    — Mike Preston, Baltimore Sun, 14 July 2024
  • Mahito meets a woman named Kiriko, who saves him from a flock of vicious pelicans and shows him how to skin and carve a fish.
    — Moeko Fujii, The New Yorker, 2 May 2024
  • Yeoh is fierce and cutthroat in the role, alternately motherly and vicious from one turn to the next.
    — Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 4 Jan. 2024
  • Volkmer: The state seeking the death penalty should be limited to the most brutal and vicious, worst of the worst, cases.
    — Christina Avery, The Arizona Republic, 10 July 2024
  • This is a vicious crime where most often the victim is a woman; the perpetrator, a man.
    — Juan P. Madrid, Scientific American, 4 Jan. 2024
  • Some of the reaction was – and still is – brutally vicious.
    — Nancy Armour, USA TODAY, 30 Aug. 2023
  • The vicious winds propelled the flames into the town, turning a wildfire into an urban one.
    — Thomas Fuller, New York Times, 10 Aug. 2023
  • At this point all of the other writers were passing vicious notes back and forth and quietly plotting to take over the show from me.
    — Anonymous, The Hollywood Reporter, 16 June 2023
  • But add the stress and trauma of living on the edge of financial ruin and a vicious spiral begins to take shape.
    — Ryan Fonseca, Los Angeles Times, 21 June 2023
  • The debate in the U.S. over Russia and Ukraine has become one of the most vicious foreign-policy disputes in years.
    — Keith Gessen, The New Yorker, 29 Aug. 2023
  • This can contribute to the vicious cycle of anxiety and sleep.
    — Mark Gurarie, Health, 23 Sep. 2023
  • But then a series of vicious storms, fuelled in part by the warm waters of El Niño, had washed away more than thirty feet of the cliff beneath their homes.
    — Daniel A. Gross, The New Yorker, 5 Nov. 2023
  • The end came as the result of a vicious left hook to the body that seemed to electrocute Fortea, forcing him to take a knee and surrender to the referee's ten count.
    — Brian Mazique, Forbes, 11 Dec. 2023
  • And so the beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar has become not only one of the most brilliant — and most vicious — battles in the history of rap.
    — Greg Rosalsky, NPR, 14 May 2024
  • With the third and most vicious brother (Danny Huston) still at large, Winstone tries to strike a deal with his quarry.
    — and Kevin Jacobsen, EW.com, 21 June 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'vicious.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: