Ma*lig"nant (?), n. 1.
A man of extreme enmity or evil intentions.
Hooker.
2. (Eng. Hist.) One of the adherents
of Charles I. or Charles II.; -- so called by the opposite
party.
Ma*lig"nant (?), a. [L.
malignans, -antis, p. pr. of malignare,
malignari, to do or make maliciously. See Malign, and
cf. Benignant.] 1. 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.
2. 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.
3. (Med.) Tending to produce death;
threatening a fatal issue; virulent; as, malignant
diphtheria.
Malignant pustule (Med.), a very
contagious disease, transmitted to man from animals, characterized by
the formation, at the point of reception of the virus, of a vesicle
or pustule which first enlarges and then breaks down into an
unhealthy ulcer. It is marked by profound exhaustion and usually
fatal. Called also charbon, and sometimes, improperly,
anthrax.