Emily Dickinson Lexicon

VI'CIOUS-NESS, n.

1. Addictedness to vice; corruptness of moral principles or practice; habitual violation of the moral law, or of moral duties; depravity in principles or in manners. What makes a governor justly despised, is viciousness and ill morals. – South.
2. Unruliness; refractoriness; as of a beast. New England.