The Collaborative International Dictionary
malignant \ma*lig"nant\, a. [L. malignans, -antis, p. pr. of malignare, malignari, to do or make maliciously. See Malign, and cf. Benignant.]
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Disposed to do harm, inflict suffering, or cause distress; actuated by extreme malevolence or enmity; virulently inimical; bent on evil; malicious.
A malignant and a turbaned Turk.
--Shak. -
Characterized or caused by evil intentions; pernicious. ``Malignant care.''
--Macaulay.Some malignant power upon my life.
--Shak.Something deleterious and malignant as his touch.
--Hawthorne. -
(Med.) Tending to produce death; threatening a fatal issue; virulent; as, malignant diphtheria.
Malignant pustule (Med.), a very contagious disease produced by infection of subcutaneous tissues with the bacterium Bacillus anthracis. It is transmitted to man from animals and is characterized by the formation, at the point of reception of the infection, of a vesicle or pustule which first enlarges and then breaks down into an unhealthy ulcer. It is marked by profound exhaustion and often fatal. The disease in animals is called charbon; in man it is called cutaneous anthrax, and formerly was sometimes called simply anthrax.
Wiktionary
n. 1 A small black spot or mark remaining in the cavity of the corner tooth of a horse after the large spot or mark has become obliterated. 2 A very contagious and fatal disease of sheep, horses, and cattle.
Usage examples of "charbon".
Charbon loved wine and good food, and Kerry had come to be his special friend, helping with the grapes and truffles and spices he grew in the gardens from his own store of Earthside seeds and cells.
Quin got to know Charbon in the classroom, there to lecture on astronomy and space navigation.
Kerry and Charbon were still spraying the starside dark with the lidar search beams, Charbon alert for enemies, Kerry hoping for friends.
Quin was at a telescope in the dome next morning, following what was left of the Spica and plotting its positions, when Charbon brought Jason to see the search gear.
Still taunting Charbon, he turned from the telescope to ask if he thought the aliens were back aboard the wreck.
Quin saw Kerry reaching for his starmist, as eager as Charbon clearly was to be rid of Jason.
Quin went to Charbon, begging permission to call and tell his mother he was still alive.
The censors had encrypted it, and they had to wait for Charbon to run it through the decoder.
Kerry himself fussed over gourmet dishes Charbon had taught him how to make.
Old Charbon stumbled toward the tunnel, shattered, sobbing, reeling with his wine.
Standing long shifts now, waiting for Vira Bran, waiting for the transmissions that never came from Jason Kwan, he was often in the dome when old Captain Charbon arrived to hope for another midnight signal from his son.
Waiting, waitingtill one sudden dawn when Quin came in with Kerry to find Charbon high off the floor.
Gasping in a startled way, Charbon stabbed his boot at the floor and turned himself clumsily, gaping at nothing.
With Charbon unfit for anything, all we can do is report it to Captain Bran.
Stumbling almost blindly into the tunnel, Charbon looked like a child crushed by punishment too cruel to endure.