What's the difference between diabolical and wicked?

Diabolical


Definition:

  • (a.) Pertaining to the devil; resembling, or appropriate, or appropriate to, the devil; devilish; infernal; impious; atrocious; nefarious; outrageously wicked; as, a diabolic or diabolical temper or act.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) "I doubt if there are any rational people to whom the word 'fuck' would be particularly diabolical, revolting or totally forbidden," Tynan said loftily, in the middle of a discussion about how sex could be represented on stage.
  • (2) The problem with the laws used to prosecute Dieudonné, Faurisson, Gollnisch and their diabolical kind is that it can, in a peculiar way, diminish our ability to argue against them.
  • (3) In a fierce attack Sunderland’s manager described the scheduling as “diabolical” and said the league was “destroying” the game.
  • (4) The launch of the new land trust follows a 10-year campaign by Citizens UK, the national charity for community organising.Smith said: "The London housing market is in a diabolical state and needs a radical change – and this is the most radical thing out there.
  • (5) He tried to capture its character – which he described as a “diabolical contraption, a dusty hunk of electric and mechanical hardware that reminded me of the disturbing 1950’s Quatermass science fiction television series” – in a near-lifesize two metre by three metre Portrait of a Dead Witch, which he also intended as a joke about the contemporary craze for computer-generated art.
  • (6) The established stable of political characters includes McKinnon’s diabolically hilarious Hillary Clinton , and Jay Pharoah’s precise, if unremarkable, take on Obama .
  • (7) Better still, he was out of the country for the entire year of the Iraq invasion, so he could at last allow his party to move on from Tony Blair's most diabolical decision, by making a belated confession to the catastrophe, which he could do without personal blushes.
  • (8) Abbott pointedly said that in 2009 – when he ousted Turnbull as Liberal leader – the Coalition was in “absolutely diabolical difficulty because we were making weak compromises with a bad government”.
  • (9) Comparing politically enthused democratic socialists to murderous paramilitaries employed by a genocidal totalitarian regime that slaughtered leftists: well, frankly, it’s diabolical.
  • (10) He was either a brilliant or a diabolical bandit – or possibly both – who captured territory throughout the Arabian peninsula and who in 1932 declared the establishment of Saudi Arabia, a nation named after a family.
  • (11) People fleeing from Syria are fleeing from the most diabolical circumstances.” The foreign minister said Australia was working with the UN refugee agency to ascertain asylum claims.
  • (12) The diabolical behavior, conversion symptoms, and diffuse violence and cruelty of a young woman responded remarkably to treatment with lithium.
  • (13) The ornate Hindu cave-temples at Ellora were "the most wonderful thing" he had seen in India, though "too diabolic to be beautiful".
  • (14) House of Cards, his second commissioned drama series whose first season was released in February, even better demonstrates Sarandos's diabolical genius (if that is what it is).
  • (15) "I fully support the money spent on the Olympic Stadium, but for it to be only used for a month before being demolished is a diabolical waste of public money."
  • (16) History suggests that there is no diabolical plot to keep women out.
  • (17) They went from a braying sort of swagger: ‘We’ve got this day won and the government’s in diabolical trouble’ to, like, ‘Oh shit, is that the time?
  • (18) The HIV and tuberculous infections therefore constitute a kind of "diabolical duo", the degree of endemia of one of these two diseases being influenced by the other and reciprocally.
  • (19) They described it as a "diabolic" act of "extreme brutality" and stressed what they said was a premeditated plan to murder the victim and a male friend by running them over after they were dumped, apparently unconscious, from the bus in which they had been assaulted.
  • (20) They’re likely to continue to support the Republicans so long as they believe that Democrats represent a diabolical threat to the nation.

Wicked


Definition:

  • (a.) Having a wick; -- used chiefly in composition; as, a two-wicked lamp.
  • (a.) Evil in principle or practice; deviating from morality; contrary to the moral or divine law; addicted to vice or sin; sinful; immoral; profligate; -- said of persons and things; as, a wicked king; a wicked woman; a wicked deed; wicked designs.
  • (a.) Cursed; baneful; hurtful; bad; pernicious; dangerous.
  • (a.) Ludicrously or sportively mischievous; disposed to mischief; roguish.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) "I had a not altogether satisfactory talk with Mark this morning" begins a typical confidential memo from Nigel Wicks, Mrs Thatcher's principal private secretary, to the British ambassador in Washington.
  • (2) It’s a wicked thing to do.” Thomson said the federal government had not notified him about approaching boats since 2009.
  • (3) It blamed "confrontation maniacs" for "[making their] servants of conservative media let loose a whole string of sophism intended to hatch all sorts of dastardly wicked plots and float misinformation".
  • (4) Fluid pressure changes and digital load measurements were simultaneously detected and recorded by use of, respectively, modified wick-in-needle and force plate transducers coupled to a microcomputer.
  • (5) In cats, brain tissue pressure (BTP) was measured by the wick-catheter method.
  • (6) The lack of knowledge about proper feeding and the use of bottles, fingers, and cotton wicks, which contribute to infection, diarrhea, and malnutrition, indicates a need for better health education.
  • (7) The light stimuli are provided by a Ganzfeld stimulator and the potentials are recorded with a disposable corneal wick electrode.
  • (8) IFP was measured in squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck region in humans using the wick-in-needle technique.
  • (9) Our results on Ap4A are in contrast with those reported previously (C. Weinmann-Dorsch, G. Pierron, R. Wick, H. Sauer, and F. Grummt, Exp.
  • (10) Resembling a billhook, with Foule Crag its wickedly curved tip, this final flourish looks daunting but can be skirted to one side, up awkward slabs.
  • (11) titration with wicks pre-loaded with serial dilutions of rat plasma implanted post mortem for 15-20 min.
  • (12) Dance, perform, party in Hackney Wick One of my favourite venues in London is The Yard Theatre.
  • (13) Less conventional still is Muff Cafe, a custom-motorbike-workshop-cum-really-rather-good-organic-restaurant in Hackney Wick that a friend recommends on condition that "you don't fill it with Guardian readers".
  • (14) The wick catheter technique was developed in 1968 for measurement of subcutaneous pressure and has been modified for easy intramuscular insertion and continuous recording of interstitial fluid pressure in animals and humans.
  • (15) The corneal wick electrode is employed for bright flash electroretinogram (ERG) recordings and for research measurements of the early receptor potential.
  • (16) In the longer term, there is a risk that local government will be seen as being wicked or incompetent as it struggles to meet George Osborne's new spending figures.
  • (17) His next book was The Great Crash 1929 (1955), a wickedly entertaining account of what happened on Wall Street in that year.
  • (18) The mistake in most international crises is to over-personalise the issue by making a pariah of the wicked man and his corrupt family at the top and thinking that, once they go, all problems will easily be solved.
  • (19) Come the bell, the upstart nervelessly played it cool, almost a laughingly gay matador, his speed of hand and foot totally nullifying Liston’s wicked jab, the key to his armoury.
  • (20) Tissue pressures were recorded using saline-filled cotton-wool wicks.