Definition of "flagitious" [fla•gi•tious]

• Characterized by extremely brutal or cruel crimes; vicious. (adjective)
• Infamous; scandalous: "That remorseless government persisted in its flagitious project” ( Robert Southey). (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "a secret and unlawful society or _hetæria_; and it was a proselytizing society; and its very name was connected with "flagitious," "atrocious," and "shocking" acts."
• "Gertzman argues that moral reformers during this period were “correct to claim that the traffic in ‘pornography’ was vigorous in the 1920s and 1930s, and that Jews were preponderant as distributors of gallantiana erotic fiction, avant-garde sexually explicit novels, sex pulps, sexology, and the most flagitious materials.”"
• "So far, both inflation and long term interest rates have remained surprisingly low, despite the flagitious promiscuity in which the U.S. has increased its federal debt, from $5.5 billion to $8.6 billion in just 18 months."