adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a vicious campaign (= very unpleasant and designed to attack someone )
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The state had conducted a vicious campaign of misinformation and propaganda.
a vicious lie (= one that is very unkind and very untrue )
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He told the court that it was a vicious lie from beginning to end.
a vicious/brutal assault
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The vicious assault happened outside the man’s home.
a violent/vicious/brutal attack
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Police described it as an extremely violent attack.
savage/stinging/vicious/biting satire
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a biting satire of the television industry
vicious circle
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
as
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The bargaining processes within the Defence commodity market are often described in the media and in Parliament as vicious inter-Service infighting.
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They were regarded as at best degenerate and self-indulgent, and at worst as vicious .
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In all his plans, he had never let himself contemplate an outcome as vicious as that.
most
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At her most vicious , Horatia would taunt him, calling into question his virility.
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Young Dallas matrons tell the most vicious jokes.
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Unlike that of the most vicious of television's robotic villains, their aim is environmental salvation for the earth.
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But the most vicious attack came from Hammam.
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The most vicious can suddenly look very prim when assuming the role of the victim.
■ NOUN
attack
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The next morning the Daily Mail launched a vicious attack upon him, injudiciously using false facts as well as offering opinions.
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His article drew vicious attacks from people close to the royal family, and his popular television talk show was canceled.
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All remembered and periodically still experienced the vicious attacks on them which the Communists were only just beginning to abandon.
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Racist attitudes are not simply articulated in the vicious attacks of racist thugs.
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Val was becoming increasingly worried by the spate of vicious attacks on horses.
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But the most vicious attack came from Hammam.
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The parents' defence of their own interests was complicated by a vicious attack on Outram as the archetypal spinster.
circle
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This has produced a nastily vicious circle .
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I had to destroy, once and for all, the vicious circle of poverty and economic stagnation.
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We're all living in a vicious circle .
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It has thus become a vicious circle of spoken mumbo jumbo.
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The result, in short, was a vicious circle .
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And if the auction houses aren't doing well ... it's a vicious circle .
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Think of the vicious circle of hyperventilation.
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Poor care in turn begat defensiveness and so on, in a vicious circle .
cycle
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This vicious cycle is shown in Figure 5.2.
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In a vicious cycle , weight gain increases insulin resistance increases weight gain.
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Women with bulimia may also be ignorant of how their behaviour perpetuates their symptoms, creating a vicious cycle which traps them.
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When you become anxious about sleeplessness, you start a vicious cycle .
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A simplified version of the vicious cycle - at its worst - is shown in Figure 1.
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The problem evolves into a vicious cycle .
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If you make it a chore or a conflict you are already back on the vicious cycle .
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As more species of life are slowly added to the embryonic aquarium, the water becomes extremely sensitive to vicious cycles .
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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"It was a particularly vicious crime," a police spokesman said.
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vicious dogs
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a vicious crime
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Apparently the girl was the victim of a vicious sex attack.
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John gets pretty vicious when he's drunk.
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Rottweilers are vicious dogs, far too dangerous to have as pets.
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Someone is conducting a vicious campaign of false rumours against the Royal Family.
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The Senator launched a vicious attack on the former President.
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We found ourselves surrounded by a gang of vicious young thugs, armed with belts, sticks and stones.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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Big Willie was the toughest dude on the block, a bad combination of vicious clothes-taking bully and mean, gutsy fighter.
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But the old guard in the leadership sends in the tanks and introduces a new phase of vicious repression.
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Everybody knew Al was vicious in the courtroom, but they knew he left it in the courtroom.
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High tide is often positively dangerous, with vicious dumping waves breaking on the steep slope of the upper beach.
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The car roared past, its gun still barking as the car made a vicious turn down Longwood.