Definition of "malicious" []

• Having the nature of or resulting from malice; deliberately harmful; spiteful: malicious gossip. (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.

• "Note, this message would have to come from someone already in your Skype Contact List, as Skype's default privacy settings will not let you receive messages from people that you have not already authorized, hence the term malicious contact."
• "As questions from investors and analysts about Jefferies's financial strength swirled in November, the firm issued a letter to investors and customers in an attempt to defend the company from what it called "malicious lies.""
• "CHETRY: Yes, but according to this report, and I mean, they say there were more than 54,000, what they call malicious acts against the Defense Department alone."