malice

3 definitions • 4 examples

the wish to harm or upset other people:

There certainly wasn't any malice in her comments.

formal I bear him no malice (= do not want to harm or upset him).

To illegally harm someone with malice aforethought is to have thought about it and planned it before acting:

Her crime was malicious and with malice aforethought.

the intention to do something wrong and esp. to cause injury:

An employee would have to prove an employer acted out of malice in order to sue.