1.
[syn: villainy, villainousness]
2. a criminal or vicious act;
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Villainy \Vil"lain*y\, n.; pl. Villainies. [OE. vilanie, OF.
vilanie, vilainie, vileinie, vilanie, LL. villania. See
Villain, n.] [Written also villany.]
1. The quality or state of being a villain, or villainous;
extreme depravity; atrocious wickedness; as, the villainy
of the seducer. "Lucre of vilanye." --Chaucer.
[1913 Webster]
The commendation is not in his wit, but in his
villainy. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
2. Abusive, reproachful language; discourteous speech; foul
talk. [Archaic]
[1913 Webster]
He never yet not vileinye ne said
In all his life, unto no manner wight. --Chaucer.
[1913 Webster]
In our modern language, it [foul language] is termed
villainy, as being proper for rustic boors, or men
of coarsest education and employment. --Barrow.
[1913 Webster]
Villainy till a very late day expressed words foul
and disgraceful to the utterer much oftener than
deeds. --Trench.
[1913 Webster]
3. The act of a villain; a deed of deep depravity; a crime.
[1913 Webster]
Such villainies roused Horace into wrath. --Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
That execrable sum of all villainies commonly called
a slave trade. --John Wesley.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
villainy
n 1: the quality of evil by virtue of villainous behavior [syn:
villainy, villainousness]
2: a criminal or vicious act
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
30 Moby Thesaurus words for "villainy":
abomination, atrocity, bad, baseness, chicanery, degradation,
disgrace, error, evil, infamy, iniquity, knavery, knavishness,
moral turpitude, obliquity, peccancy, rascality, rascalry,
reprobacy, roguery, roguishness, scampishness, scandal,
scoundrelism, shame, sin, turpitude, vileness, villainousness,
wrong