a. Also 4–6 flagicious(e. [ad. OF. flagicieux, flagitieux, or L. flāgitiōsus, f. flāgitium shameful crime, also importunity; related to flāgitāre: see FLAGITATE v.]
1. Of persons: Guilty of or addicted to atrocious crimes; deeply criminal, extremely wicked.
1382. Wyclif, 2 Macc. vii. 34. Thou cursid, and of alle men most flagiciouse.
1581. Campion, in Confer., I. (1584), C ij. What induced Luther (that flagitious Apostata) to alleuiate the worth of the Epistle of Iames, by stiling it Contentious, swelling, dry, strawy, and vnworthie the spirit of Apostle?
a. 1617. Bayne, On Coloss. (1634), 98. Is it fit the Wife should be kept under the government of a flagitious servant?
1715–20. Pope, Iliad, XIII. 787.
| Crimes heap’d on Crimes, shall bend your Glory down, | |
| And whelm in Ruins yon’ flagitious Town. |
1879. Gladstone, Glean., III. i. 16. He [Dr. Lee] says, ‘Erastus was not an atheist, nor even an infidel; he was neither an open enemy of the gospel, nor the most flagitious of mortals, but a man, whom good and great men pronounced great and good.’
absol. 1796. Bp. Watson, Apol. Bible, 3. In accomplishing your purpose, you will … have annihilated in the minds of the flagitious all their fears of future punishment.
¶ b. Loosely used for: Infamous.
1741. Richardson, Pamela (1742), IV. 364. The common Executioner, who is the lowest and most flagitious Officer of the Commonwealth.
2. Of actions, character, principles, etc.: Extremely wicked or criminal; heinous, villainous.
1550. Veron, Godly Saiyngs (1846), 142. Manye of you, when they haue done euyil, doo bost themselues moste shamefullye of it and reioyce in their wicked and flagitiouse doinges and factes.
1651. Raleigh’s Ghost, Pref. Men, of so flagitious lives, that [etc.].
1701. Rowe, Amb. Step-Moth., II. i.
| This Age | |
| Of most flagitious Note, degenerates | |
| From the fam’d Vertue of our Ancestors, | |
| And leaves but few Examples of their Excellence. |
1726. De Foe, Hist. Devil, I. iv. (1840), 51. Thomas was not the only man that, having committed a flagitious crime, had been deluded by his own imagination, and the power of fancy, to think the Devil was come for him.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., II. xxxii. 247. He may deserve the reproach of lewdness, but he is an undoubted Catholic; and his faith is pure, though his manners are flagitious.
1823. Lingard, Hist. Eng., VI. 232. His principles, however, if we may believe his own assertions, were of the most flagitious description.
1875. Bryce, Holy Rom. Emp., ix. (ed. 5), 134. The Emperor was soon informed of these plots, as well as of the flagitious life of the pontiff, a youth of twenty-five, the most profligate if not the most guilty of all who have worn the tiara.
