flagitious

Adjective

flagitious (comparative more flagitious, superlative most flagitious)

1. (literary) Guilty of terrible crimes; wicked, criminal.
   • This young Nobleman was not only a flagitious Punster himself, but was accessary to the Punning of others, by Consent, by Provocation, by Connivance, and by Defence of the Evil committed […] .1716 Nov 7th, quoted from 1742, probably Alexander Pope, God's Revenge Against Punning, from Miscellanies, 3rd volume, page 227
   • The duke found his soldiery half disciplined, flagitious, disorderly and inefficient: he rendered them, in his own words, a "perfect organ."1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XLIV, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 258
2. (literary) Extremely brutal or wicked; heinous, monstrous.
   • But if in Noble Minds ſome Dregs remain, / Not yet purg'd off, of Spleen and ſow'r Diſdain, / Diſcharge that Rage on more Provoking Crimes, / Nor fear a Dearth on theſe Flagitious Times.1711 May, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: […] W[illiam] Lewis […]; and sold by W[illiam] Taylor […], T[homas] Osborn[e] […], and J[ohn] Graves […], →OCLC, page 30
   • Less extensively mischievous, tyrannicide would be less flagitious than populicide; murder of one, though he were a Secretary of State; or—but imagination must stop here—than murder of a promiscuous multitude of unarmed men, women, and children.1824 December 9 (date written), Jeremy Bentham, “[Letter 3153] To the Catholic Association”, in Luke O’Sullivan, Catherine Fuller, editors, The Correspondence of Jeremy Bentham, volume 12 (July 1824...

   Synonyms:

   infamous, scandalous, nefarious, iniquitous