Ma‐lig″nant (?), a. [L. malignans, -antis, p. pr. of malignare, malignari, to do or make maliciously. See Malign, and cf. Benignant.] 1. Disposed to do harm, inflict suffering, or cause distress; actuated by extreme malevolence or enmity; virulently inimical; bent on evil; malicious.
A malignant and a turbaned Turk. Shak.
2. Characterized or caused by evil intentions; pernicious. “Malignant care.” Macaulay.
Some malignant power upon my life. Shak.
Something deleterious and malignant as his touch. Hawthorne.
3. (Med.) Tending to produce death; threatening a fatal issue; virulent; as, malignant diphtheria.
Malignant pustule(Med.), a very contagious disease, transmitted to man from animals, characterized by the formation, at the point of reception of the virus, of a vesicle or pustule which first enlarges and then breaks down into an unhealthy ulcer. It is marked by profound exhaustion and usually fatal. Called also charbon, and sometimes, improperly, anthrax.