wicked adj.
1. unpleasant, terrible, awful.
Part Summers Travels 41: It is too well known what a wicked number of followers he hath had. | ||
Sazerac Lying Club 144: Those pistols look wicked, and make me nervous. | ||
Breath from Veldt (1899) 133: Their sister said it was a wicked country for fever where we were going, and even if they did not die there, all the oxen would. | ||
Bulletin (Sydney) 28 Apr. 24/2: Cribb caught a very wicked one on the mouth once and his head went back as if knocked off his shoulders. | ||
Letters of Ambrose Bierce (1922) 125: The weather here is wicked! I don’t even canoe. | letter 11 Aug. in Pope||
Score by Innings (2004) 432: Buzz Gaffney [...] whistled a wicked one right at Conley’s head. | ‘Mister Conley’||
Good Companions 255: Got a wicked stomach – oh, downright wicked! – won’t look at a thing. | ||
Night and the City 113: The lines on his forehead are something wicked. | ||
in Mass-Observation War Factory: Report 2: The girls laugh ‘It’s a job getting up these mornings, isn’t it?’ says one of them ‘Wicked. Ought to be stopped!’ says the foreman. | ||
Sat. Night and Sun. Morning 26: Time for white-overalled women to wheel in tea urns and pour out their wicked mash. | ||
Crust on its Uppers 87: The nosh is a wicked price on purpose to keep the slag out. | ||
Dragon Can’t Dance (1998) 121: Ash Wednesday morning is the wickedest day of the year on the Hill. | ||
Minder [TV script] 26: You had the chalfonts seen to? Wicked, that is. | ‘Get Daley!’||
(con. 1968) Citadel (1989) 211: Wicked-looking triangular bayonet pointed directly at my throat. | ||
Street Talk 2 32: This work is wicked! |
2. (orig. US, also wikid) excellent, wonderful.
Handy Andy 40: Reilly the butcher has two or three capital dogs, and there’s a wicked mastiff below stairs, and I’ll send for my ‘buffer,’ and we’ll have some spanking sport. | ||
Omaha Dly Bee (NE) 31 May 2/1: That was quite a game of ball [...] both teams [...] made a wicked fight. | ||
Ballygullion 163: He mixed a bowl av very wicked punch. | ||
Bits of New York Life 31 Jan. [synd. col.] In odd moments he ‘shakes a wicked foot.’. | ||
Carry on, Jeeves 202: A most amazing Johnnie who dishes a wicked ragout. | ||
On Broadway 13 Apr. [synd. col.] Just because we can swing a wicked crochet needle, [...] doesn’t mean we can’t swing to Benny Goodman. | ||
N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 2 Aug. 13: The slick-headed gents who drive those long, low [...] wicked Cadillacs. | ||
(con. 1943) Big War 15: Hey! hey! – was he wicked with his weapon that’s all I want to know! | ||
Slam the Big Door (1961) 72: Gosnell makes a wicked martini. | ||
Goodbye to The Hill (1966) 55: She had a pair of wicked blue eyes. | ||
Dead Butler Caper 1: She plied for hire, on wicked pencil-thin high-heels, on a short stretch of pavement. | ||
Flyboy in the Buttermilk (1992) 57: You know me meet the man Sunny Adé today and him wicked star. | ‘King Sunny Adé’||
(con. 1950) L.A. Confidential [film script] A club photographer pops snapshots, but the real action is on the floor where Mickey Cohen does a wicked ‘Lindy Hop’ with three different girls at once. | ||
Hip-Hop Connection Jan. 68: He’s got some wicked techniques with the upfaders. | ||
Experience 215: In the sense meant by my son, Louis, when he tells me (for instance) that he is ‘wicked at Latin.’. | ||
Londonstani (2007) 4: Nelly released a track bout what wikid trainers they were. | ||
Observer 1 Feb. 42: Watch the drug-addled, respect-averse cyber generation have their ‘wicked’ way. | ||
Sellout (2016) 135: Wicked party. | ||
theculturetrip.com ‘Guide to London Slang 10 Jan. 🌐 Wicked – cool, amazing. |
In compounds
(US teen) used of anything especially excellent.
Campus Sl. Apr. 9: wicked – very; intensifier of an adjective: ‘That jacket is wicked awesome.’. | ||
Chicago Trib. 18 Dec. 🌐 If Nomar Garciaparra comes to the White Sox, everyone has to learn how to properly pronounce ‘wicked awesome.’. |
(US, mainly northeast) something very good or very bad. When used without an article, e.g. This food is wicked pisser, it is taken to mean very good; when used with an article, e.g. This job is a wicked pisser, it is taken to mean something very bad.
Alt. Eng. Dict. 🌐 wicked pisser (noun) used in New England pronounced ‘wicked pissah’. Describing something very good or very bad. Usage: when used without an article as in ‘This food is wicked pisser’ it is taken to mean very good. when used with an article as in ‘Your job is a wicked pisser’ its taken to mean something very bad. |
(US black) an extraordinary event or situation.
Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.]. |
In phrases
(W.I.) extraordinary.
Official Dancehall Dict. 55: Wicked-wassy ’n’ wild extraordinary, super ‘bad.’. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
(US campus) a failure, esp. one who could equally well have succeeded had they so decided.
Sl. U. |