Emily Dickinson Lexicon

VIL'LAIN-Y, n.

1. Extreme depravity; atrocious wickedness; as, the villainy of the thief or the robber; the villainy of the seducer. The commendation is not in his wit, but in his villainy. – Shak.
2. A crime; an action of deep depravity. In this sense, the word has a plural. Such villainies roused Horace into wrath. – Dryden.