From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishvindictivevin‧dic‧tive /vɪnˈdɪktɪv/ adjective CRUELunreasonably cruel and unfair towards someone who has harmed you a bitter and vindictive old man —vindictively adverb —vindictiveness noun [uncountable]
Examples from the Corpus
vindictive• After the divorce Joan's ex-husband became increasingly vindictive.• Depriving our police force of a cup of tea is astronomically vindictive and silly.• A conservative columnist, George Will, provides a more vindictive answer.• Humans are specialized in vindictive behavior.• He never destroyed a witch simply on the say-so of vindictive enemies.• What vindictive irony, to force Digby to sacrifice his entire career in transport over a railways announcement!• "I'll pay her back for this.'' "Don't be so vindictive. It doesn't help anyone.''• Accurately, though unfairly, contemporary critics of the Futurists denounced them with the vindictive labels: photographic, cinematic.• He's not a vindictive person.• She was vindictive, vulgar; she wanted to hurt him.• Doug could be nasty and vindictive when he was drinking.Origin vindictive (1600-1700) Latin vindicta “revenge”, from vindicare; → VINDICATE 