sinister
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: enpr: sĭn′ĭ-stər
ipa: /ˈsɪnɪstə/
ipa: /ˈsɪnɪstɚ/
enpr: sĭ-nĭ′stər
note: Indic
ipa: /sɪˈnɪsʈə(ɾ)/
Forms: form: more sinister
form: most sinister
form: sinistre
Etymology: From Middle English sinistre (“unlucky”), from Old French senestre, sinistre (“left”), from Latin sinister (“left hand”).
Senses: examples: text: All the several ills that visit earth,
Brought forth by night, with a sinister birth.
ref: 1611, Ben[jamin] Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy, London: […] [William Stansby?] for Walter Burre, →OCLC, (please specify the page):
text: And in the meanwhile, Society shivered a little feverishly, filled now with the scions of those who had come over with the Jewish and American Conquests. Escutcheons were becoming valueless, how sinister soever the blots and clots upon them.
ref: 1922, Michael Arlen, “1/5/1”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:
synonyms: word: foreboding
word: portentous
word: augurous
word: baleful
word: bodeful
word: boding
word: dire
word: disastrous
word: fatal
word: foreboding
word: ill-boding
word: ill-fated
word: ill-omened
word: ill-starred
word: inauspicate
word: inauspicious
word: nefastous
word: omenic
word: ominous
word: brooding
word: portentous
word: presageful
word: presagious
word: prodigious
word: sinister
word: star-crossed
word: sullen
glosses: Inauspicious, ominous, unlucky, illegitimate (as in bar sinister).
examples: text: sinister influences
text: the sinister atmosphere of the crypt
synonyms: word: malicious
word: malevolent
word: abandoned
word: arrant
word: bad
word: bad apple
word: bad seed
word: baleful
word: baneful
word: base
word: dark
word: deleterious
word: depraved
word: despicable
word: detrimental
word: devilish
word: diabolical
word: evil
word: flagitious
word: harmful
word: ill-intentioned
word: ill-natured
word: immoral
word: incorrigible
word: iniquitous
word: iniquous
word: injurious
word: knavish
word: malefic
word: maleficent
word: malevolent
word: malicious
word: malign
word: malignant
word: nefarious
word: niddering
word: nidering
word: niding
word: nithing
word: no-good
word: peccaminous
word: pernicious
word: reprehensible
word: reprobate
word: satanic
word: scathful
word: sinful
word: sinister
word: sordid
word: sullen
word: ungodly
word: unholy
word: vicious
word: vile
word: villainous
word: wicked
word: wrong
glosses: Evil or seemingly evil; indicating lurking danger or harm.
examples: text: my Mothers bloud
Runs on the dexter checke, and this ſiniſter
Bounds in my fathers:
ref: c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v], column 2:
text: His ſicatrice, with an Embleme of warre, heere on his ſiniſter cheeke;
ref: c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 235:
text: Before the train had stopped he had decorated his sinister shirt-cuff with the inscription, ‘J. P. Huddle, The Warren, Tilfield, near Slowborough.’
ref: 1911, Saki, ‘The Unrest-Cure’, The Chronicles of Clovis:
antonyms: dexter
glosses: Of the left side.
examples: text: The shield was divided into five, with two coats of arms on the dexter side (the right-hand side from the point of view of the bearer of the shield)—London and Southampton—and three on the sinister side—Salisbury, Winchester and Portsmouth.
ref: 1956 July, Col. H. C. B. Rogers, “Railway Heraldry”, in Railway Magazine, page 477:
topics: government
heraldry
hobbies
lifestyle
monarchy
nobility
politics
antonyms: dexter
glosses: On the left side of a shield from the wearer's standpoint, and the right side to the viewer.
examples: text: Nimble and sinister tricks and shifts.
ref: 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Judicature”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:
text: He scorns to undermine another's interest by any sinister or inferior arts.
ref: 1667, Robert South, The Practice of Religion Enforced by Reason:
text: He read in their looks […] sinister intentions directed particularly toward himself.
ref: 1822, [Walter Scott], The Pirate. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC:
glosses: Wrong, as springing from indirection or obliquity; perverse; dishonest.
Derived terms: bar sinister
baton sinister
bend sinister
sinister aspect
sinister chief
sinistral