Literary notes about flagitious (AI summary)
In literature, "flagitious" is deployed as a potent descriptor for actions or characters that are morally reprehensible and shockingly unjust. Authors use the term to evoke not only extreme wickedness but also a perverse sense of corruption in both individuals and regimes—for instance, describing a deceitful influence that brings ruin to families [1] or the tyrannical nature of despotic rule [2]. The word can characterize acts that span a spectrum from insidious fraud [3] to overt villainy in political and military contexts [4, 5], effectively lending a heightened emotional charge and moral outrage to the narrative. Its usage underscores a deep condemnation of behaviors that transgress ethical boundaries and betray societal values [6, 7].
- “Yes, but we can calculate upon the death of cunning Alice, who, by her undue and flagitious influence over your uncle, left you so.”
— from The Evil Eye; Or, The Black SpectorThe Works of William Carleton, Volume One by William Carleton - Such a proceeding would be a coup d'état , not as flagitious certainly as that of Bonaparte, but to the full as revolutionary and illegal.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 02, No. 08, June 1858 A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics by Various - With the proceeds of these flagitious frauds Robson feasted and made merry.
— from Prisons Over Seas Deportation and Colonization; British and American Prisons of To-day by Arthur Griffiths - His conspiracy has been one of the most flagitious of which history will ever furnish an example.
— from Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 4 by Thomas Jefferson - Thus, in a moment, had terminated his long and flagitious career.
— from Edgar Huntly; or, Memoirs of a Sleep-Walker by Charles Brockden Brown - But thou, O wicked, and of all men most flagitious, be not lifted up without cause with vain hopes, whilst thou art raging against his servants.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - We might be surprised at their frankness; but their most flagitious vice, the spirit of persecution, was in their eyes the most meritorious virtue.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
