- Bacillus anthracis
- malignant 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.
[1913 Webster]
A malignant and a turbaned Turk. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
2. Characterized or caused by evil intentions; pernicious. ``Malignant care.'' --Macaulay. [1913 Webster]
Some malignant power upon my life. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
Something deleterious and malignant as his touch. --Hawthorne. [1913 Webster]
3. (Med.) Tending to produce death; threatening a fatal issue; virulent; as, malignant diphtheria. [1913 Webster]
{Malignant pustule} (Med.), a very contagious disease produced by infection of subcutaneous tissues with the bacterium {Bacillus anthracis}. It is transmitted to man from animals and is characterized by the formation, at the point of reception of the infection, of a vesicle or pustule which first enlarges and then breaks down into an unhealthy ulcer. It is marked by profound exhaustion and often fatal. The disease in animals is called {charbon}; in man it is called {cutaneous anthrax}, and formerly was sometimes called simply {anthrax}. [1913 Webster +PJC]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.
