a. [f. VENGE v., after revengeful. Cf. AVENGEFUL a.]
1. Harboring revenge; seeking vengeance; prone or inclined to avenge oneself; vindictive.
a. 1599. Spenser, F. Q., VII. vi. 48. [She] thinkes what punishment were best assign’d And thousand deathes deuiseth in her vengefull mind.
1701. F. Manning, Poems, 77. A worse Event … The vengeful Cupid sent.
1713. Swift, On Himself, Wks. 1755, IV. I. 12. The queen incens’d, his services forgot, Leaves him a victim to the vengeful Scot.
a. 1763. Shenstone, Inscription, vi. 24. Fair and flow’ry is the brake, Yet it hides the vengeful snake.
1812. Combe, Syntax, Picturesque, XXV. 452. Again the vengeful foes appear’d, Again their angry standards rear’d.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xxx. 414. One of them, the male, is excited—the other, the female, collected and vengeful.
1873. Symonds, Grk. Poets, i. 9. Ulysses is … pitiless in his hostility; subtle, vengeful, cunning.
transf. c. 1600. Shaks., Sonn., xcix. But for his theft … A vengfull canker eate him vp to death.
1848. Faber, Spir. Confer. (1870), 124. Wasted time is a vengeful thing.
1879. Geo. Eliot, Theo. Such, iv. 159. An abandoned belief may be more effectively vengeful than Dido.
b. Inflicting vengeance; serving as an instrument of vengeance. Said of a weapon, the hand or arm, etc.
(a) a. 1586. Sidney, Ps. XXI. xii. Thou shalt … ready make thy vengefull bow Against their guilty faces.
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., III. ii. 198. Here’s a vengefull Sword, rusted with ease.
a. 1623. Fletcher, Love’s Cure, V. iii. I pray His vengeful sword may fall upon thy head Successfully.
1725. Pope, Odyss., I. 154. The proud oppressors fly the vengeful sword.
1807. G. Chalmers, Caledonia, I. II. iii. 253. The victorious career of Ida was stopt … by the vengeful sword of the valorous Owen.
1869. Goulburn, Purs. Holiness, i. 1. So could he bid the vengeful fire fall from heaven.
(b) 1696. Tate & Brady, Ps. cvi. 17. Her vengeful Jaws extending wide.
1729. T. Cooke, Tales, etc., 140. Of all who fought beneath this Chief’s Command Not one escap’d the Critic’s vengeful Hand.
1748. Johnson, Van. Hum. Wishes, 168. Rebellion’s vengeful talons.
a. 1800. Cowper, Iliad (ed. 2), XXI. 343. Allow no respite to thy vengeful arm Till ev’ry Trojan … within Ilium’s lofty walls Be fast enclosed.
2. Of actions or feelings: Characterized or prompted by revengeful motives; arising from a desire for vengeance.
1635–56. Cowley, Davideis, III. Poems (1905), 328. Full thrice six years they felt fierce Eglons yoke, Till Ehuds sword Gods vengeful Message spoke.
1649. Milton, Eikon., viii. Wks. 1851, III. 392. That choleric, and vengefull act of proclaiming him Traitor.
1709. Prior, Carm. Sec., xvii. With wise Silence pond’ring vengeful Wars.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., VII. 193. To us who seldom feel the vengeful wound, it is merely a subject of curiosity.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xxix. The fury darted her knife at him with the vengeful dexterity of a wild Indian.
1845. Ld. Campbell, Chancellors, liv. (1857), III. 77. In no composition that I have met with is there a greater display of vengeful malignity.
1874. Green, Short Hist., viii. § 7. 534. The Massacre had left them the objects of a vengeful hate.
Hence Vengefully adv., Vengefulness.
1830–1. Ruskin, Iteriad, II. 300. His dark lightning-eye made him seem … like his own Thalaba, *vengefully fired.
1844. Kinglake, Eöthen, iv. On he goes vengefully thirsting for the best blood of Troy.
1897. Advance (Chicago), 31 July, 143/1. He looked at his mother vengefully.
1727. Bailey (vol. II.), *Vengefulness, vindictive or revengeful Temper or Nature.
1862. Meredith, Poet. Wks. (1912), 134. He fainted on his vengefulness, and strove To ape the magnanimity of love.
