A treacherous or vicious act

Usage examples of villainy.

That ye me touch or love in villainy, He right anon will slay you with the deed, And in your youthe thus ye shoulde die.

Another reason for my determination to hurry my escape, when I could no longer doubt the villainy of my detestable companion, seems to me to be worthy of record.

In mean contrast to skulls, bowie-knives and other red villainy, my thoughts will be set toward the mild truantry of trudging for an afternoon in the country.

With his eyes upon the werowance, Diccon told an old story of a piece of Paspahegh villainy and of the payment which the English exacted, and I laughed as at the most amusing thing in the world.

Miss Mannering did not seem offended by so ungainly an exhibition, though the innkeeper patently considered it the ultimate demonstration of villainy.

If he was amused at the ease with which fools can be humbugged, he must also have been astounded at the awful villainy of those who, perfect strangers to him, had perjured themselves for the sake of notoriety.

Instead, we pushed Porta forward as our best interpreter, and he gave the old boy an amiable one-toothed grin of unparalleled villainy and addressed him in Russian.

Well, some villainy is centered upon it now, and I must go there in the guise of the Pursuivant to see what I can find.

However, the mother having witnessed the rage of the three robbers was the first to urge me to fortify myself against their villainy by an appeal to the law.

Feronte-bigot, satyr, artist in villainy, refined in cruelty, bloody even in his pleasures may truly be called Archenemy of Liberty.

Prince, Bharata Rahon, gloating in anticipation over the fruits of his villainy.

Men of all classes were open-mouthed in the denunciation and meanness of Lopez--though no one but Mr Wharton knew half his villainy, as he alone knew that the expenses had been paid twice over.

After all his villainies, which he perpetrates without any apparent qualms of conscience, it is incredible that he should honestly repent of his crimes.

For, when she saw the Romans win the town, She took her children all, and skipt adown Into the fire, and rather chose to die, Than any Roman did her villainy.

I say again that, if the ring has fallen low, it is not in the main the fault of the men who have done the fighting, but it lies at the door of the vile crew of ring-side parasites and ruffians, who are as far below the honest pugilist as the welsher and the blackleg are below the noble racehorse which serves them as a pretext for their villainies.