different between wicked vs beastly

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English wicked, wikked, an alteration of Middle English wicke, wikke (“morally perverse, evil, wicked”). Possibly from an adjectival use of Old English wi??a (“wizard, sorcerer”), from Proto-Germanic *wikkô (“necromancer, sorcerer”), though the phonology makes this theory difficult to explain.

Pronunciation

• enPR: w?k??d, IPA^(key): /?w?k?d/

Adjective

wicked (comparative wickeder or more wicked, superlative wickedest or most wicked)

1. Evil or mischievous by nature.

   Synonyms: evil, immoral, malevolent, malicious, nefarious, twisted, villainous; see also Thesaurus:evil

2. (slang) Excellent; awesome; masterful.

   Synonyms: awesome, bad, cool, dope, excellent, far out, groovy, hot, rad; see also Thesaurus:excellent

Usage notes

Use of "wicked" as an adjective rather than an adverb is considered an error in the Boston dialect. However, that is not necessarily the case in other New England dialects.

Derived terms

• wickedly
• wickedness
• wicked tongue

Translations

Adverb

wicked (not comparable)

1. (slang, New England, Britain) Very, extremely.

   Synonyms: hella, helluv (both Californian/regional, and both potentially considered mildly vulgar)

Translations

Etymology 2

See wick.

Pronunciation

• enPR: w?kt, IPA^(key): /w?kt/

Verb

wicked

1. simple past tense and past participle of wick

Adjective

wicked (not comparable)

1. Having a wick.

Derived terms

• multiwicked

Etymology 3

See wick.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?w?k?d/

Adjective

wicked

1. (Britain, dialect, obsolete) Active; brisk.
2. (Britain, dialect, chiefly Yorkshire) Infested with maggots.
3. Alternative form of wick, as applying to inanimate objects only.

References

Middle English

Adjective

wicked

1. Alternative form of wikked

English

Etymology

From Middle English beestly, bestely, beastelich, equivalent to beast +? -ly. Compare West Frisian bistachtich (“beastly”), Dutch beestachtig (“beastly”), German biestig (“beastly”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?bi?stli/
• Rhymes: -i?stli

Adjective

beastly (comparative beastlier or more beastly, superlative beastliest or most beastly)

1. (Britain) Pertaining to, or having the form, nature, or habits of, a beast.
2. (Britain) Similar to the nature of a beast; contrary to the nature and dignity of man

   Synonyms: brutal, filthy

3. (Britain, dated) Abominable.

4. (of computing hardware) Powerful, having a powerful appearance
   • 2010, January 11, Matthew DeCarlo, “Silverstone mini-ITX case can fit Radeon HD 5970”, TechSpot:

     In addition to a Core i7-860 with a full-sized heatsink and 4GB of DDR3 RAM, the company showed its SUGO SG07 housing today's most beastly graphics card, the dual-GPU Radeon HD 5970, which is about 30cm long.

   • 2014, March 21, Tycho de Feijter, “Hummer H2 is a Big Black Beast in the Rain in China”, CarNewsChina.com:

     A very big, very black, and very beastly Hummer H2, Spotted in China in in the rain the great city of Zigong in Sichuan Province.

   • 2018, October 16, Chris Smith, “Huawei just unveiled the most beastly Android phone the world has ever seen”, BGR:

     Huawei’s Mate 20 phones have instantly become the best iPhone XS rivals out there, at least on paper, and the high-end model is easily the most beastly Android phone the world has seen so far.

Usage notes

Most often used pejoratively, but sense 4 has predominantly positive connotations. Bestial is more narrow, though also often used pejoratively.

Synonyms

• (like a beast): bestial, animalian

Derived terms

• beastliness

Translations

Adverb

beastly (comparative more beastly, superlative most beastly)

1. Like a beast; brutishly.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.8:

     Beastly he threwe her downe, ne car'd to spill / Her garments gay with scales of fish that all did fill.

   • 1901, The Literary World - Volume 63 - Page 35:

     They have insulted me most beastly. Moreover, they are, everyone of them, black-satan filthmen.

Anagrams

• baetyls