wicked
part of speech
adjective (wicked, more wicked or wickeder, most wicked or wickedest)
meaning for a pupil
1) Wicked means very bad, evil or cruel: «the wicked witch». tree →
2) Wicked can mean naughty in a playful way: «a wicked grin», «a wicked sense of humour». tree →
3) In slang, especially in the UK, wicked means excellent or very good: «That's wicked!». tree →
sense in the lessons
In fairy tales and stories, «wicked» describes villains: the wicked stepmother, the wicked witch, the Wicked Witch of the West. In everyday slang, «wicked!» means «brilliant!» — the meaning depends on context. In lessons on right and wrong, «wicked» is a strong word for very bad acts. Phrases: «the wicked witch», «a wicked grin», «no rest for the wicked».
examples
- The wicked witch cast a spell on the princess. tree →
- The wicked stepmother made Cinderella work all day. tree →
- He gave me a wicked grin. tree →
- Your new skateboard is wicked! tree →
- Hurting animals is a wicked thing to do. tree →
- She has a wicked sense of humour. tree →
- That was a wicked goal! tree →
- Wicked deeds will not stay hid. tree →
note
Said with two syllables: «WIK-id» (not like «picked»). Slang «wicked» = great; check the context. Fairy-tale «wicked stepmothers» are a story trope — real step-parents are often kind.
In the corpora
- The book's animals are characters in a story; real weasels and foxes are not wicked, they just hunt to eat.
- "Sus" is short for suspicious; in New England "wicked" means very.
- Very young children still mix up wishing, pretending and what really happened, so their tall tales are imagination, not wicked lies.
- Tank isn't wicked.
- «It's wicked annoying,» Ana says («wicked» means very, in New England).
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «wicked» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.