\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}.

\Ma*lig"nant\, n.
1. A man of extrems enmity or evil intentions. --Hooker.
2. (Eng. Hist.) One of the adherents of Charles L. or Charles
   LL.; -- so called by the opposite party.