wicked

(redirected from wickedest)
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Medical.

(there's) no peace for the wicked

The lack of peace in one's life, or the perpetual need to be working or be busy, stems from one's sinfulness. The phrase comes from the Bible and is now usually used humorously. He may have been acquitted of those crimes, but he will not go unpunished. There's no peace for the wicked. A: "You working late again, Stan?" B: "No peace for the wicked." You know me, I can't sit still for too long. No peace for the wicked, right?

(there's) no rest for the weary

One must continue to toil or work regardless of how exhausted one is. A logical variant of the original phrase "no peace for the wicked." Parents of young children know all too well what it's like to have only a few hours of sleep and still have to get up at the crack of dawn—no rest for the weary, as my granny always said. There won't be time for a break, because we'll need to get going on the next phase of the project as soon as this one is done. There's no rest for the weary! A: "Wow, are you putting in another 80-hour week, Stan?" B: "Yep, no rest for the weary."

(there's) no rest for the wicked

The lack of peace in one's life, or the perpetual need to be working or be busy, stems from one's sinfulness. The phrase comes from the Bible, in which it alludes to the suffering in hell that awaits sinners after death. Now, the phrase is usually used humorously. He may have been acquitted of those crimes, but he will not go unpunished. There's no rest for the wicked. A: "You working late again, Stan?" B: "Yep. No rest for the wicked!" You know me, I can't sit still for too long. No rest for the wicked, right?

See also: for, no, rest, wicked

(there's) no sleep for the wicked

The lack of peace in one's life, or the perpetual need to be working or be busy, stems from one's sinfulness. The phrase comes from the Bible, where it alludes to the suffering in hell that awaits sinners after death. Now, the phrase is usually used humorously. He may have been acquitted of those crimes, but he will not go unpunished. There's no sleep for the wicked. A: "You working late again, Stan?" B: "Yep. No sleep for the wicked." You know me, I can't sit still for too long. No sleep for the wicked, right?

be wicked

slang To be extremely good or impressive. I just got to drive her new car around the parking lot, and it's wicked. It can go from 0 to 60 in under three seconds!

have (one's) wicked way with (someone)

slang To have sex with someone. Did you really have your wicked way with that hot chick from the bar? Is that why you never came home last night?

wicked

slang Extremely good or impressive. I just got to drive her new car around the parking lot, and it's wicked. It can go from 0 to 60 in under three seconds! Get outta the way, Riley's got a wicked slapshot!

wicked bad

slang Especially unpleasant, nasty, or deleterious. They pulled a wicked bad prank on the principal, and they were all expelled as a result. The fumes from the chemicals were wicked bad, so everyone had to clear out of the room.

wicked tongue

The tendency to speak maliciously. Watch out for Ben—he has a wicked tongue and will probably say something upsetting before the night is over, Can't you say anything nice? You have such a wicked tongue!

No rest for the wicked.

Fig. It's because you are wicked that you have to work hard. (Usually jocular.) A: I can't seem to ever get all my work done. B: No rest for the wicked.

See also: for, no, rest, wicked

there's no rest for the wicked

no rest for the wicked

People use there's no rest for the wicked or no rest for the wicked to say humorously that they or someone else has a lot to do. There's no rest for the wicked. I have to get back to Manchester. Note: People also sometimes use peace instead of rest. Elizabeth called his name. `Oh dear, no peace for the wicked,' he said.

See also: for, no, rest, wicked

Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012

no peace (or rest) for the wicked

someone's heavy workload or lack of tranquillity is punishment for a sinful life. humorous

This expression comes from Isaiah 48:22: ‘There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked’.

there’s no peace/rest for the ˈwicked

(usually humorous) used when somebody is complaining that they have a lot of work to do: Well, it’s been nice talking to you, but I really must go. No rest for the wicked!

wicked

mod. excellent; impressive; cool. (Also in compounds, wicked smart, wicked cool, etc.) Now this is what I call a wicked guitar.

wicked bad

mod. really quite good. (Bad has a long history of being used as an intensifier. Wicked here is a synonym of the intensifier bad.) Man, this stuff is wicked bad.

no rest for the weary (wicked)

No peace and quiet for anyone; to be kept very busy. This term, dating from about 1900, today is used facetiously by or about a person who simply is kept very busy. It presumably echoes several biblical passages stating that God will take care of good people but will provide no peace for evildoers (Isaiah 48:22 and 57:21). Wicked is used more in Britain, weary in America. After a two-foot snowfall and predictions of at least another foot of snow, meteorologist Michael Henry said, “There’s no rest for the weary. Just when they . . . cleaned up after the last storm, here comes another” (Boston Globe, March 9, 2001).

no rest for the wicked

Perpetual torment. We are told in Isaiah 57:21 that “there is no peace, saith my God to the wicked.” The phrase is often said as “no rest for the weary” and heard as a mild complaint in labor-intensive situations.

See also: for, no, rest, wicked

See also:

References in periodicals archive ?

Moreover, while Friedrich shows increasing range as his Kurt grows more desperate, and Minichmayr is incandescent as the amoral live wire Tanja with the wickedest laugh in Central Europe, both characters are ultimately too selfish and unlikeable to generate much sympathy.

You Bet Your Life

Discussing the question of political corruption in America, the baron announces "with his wickedest leer":

Why Americans can't write political fiction

The grim portrait is one of the best known of Aleister Crowley, the infamous apostle of evil who dubbed himself "The Beast, 666." Dubbed by the press "the wickedest man in the world" -- a title that he relished -- Crowley was without a doubt one of the 20th century's most influential figures.

Is it "only rock 'n' roll"? Far from being just a youthful fad, rock and roll music is a powerful force for subversive cultural, social, and political change. (Cover Story: Music)

His self-created reputation as the "wickedest man on Earth" guaranteed him inches of coverage in British newspapers and scandal sheets all through the first half of the 20th century.

Do What I Wilt

Kingston was established on a grid system in 1692 after a devastating earthquake had destroyed Port Royal, the pirate capital of the West Indies known as `the wickedest city on earth'.

Turning the tide in Kingston: after years of decay, Jamaica's capital city has begun to see its heart restored. Martin Ed Henry meets a man who has devoted the last 12 years to this challenging task

An older "witness," now in his 40s, observes that the nuns who taught him were "the wickedest people he ever met." A younger Inuit "witness" confesses: he can't skin foxes and can't build an igloo.

Quick, smart and dubious: the features of Kevin McMahon

The wickedest character in the whole canon, George Vavasour, comes from his favourite class, the lesser squirearchy, while the vulgar nouveau fiche Emily Dunstable, whom even her best friend dare not call a lady, is generous, honourable, and honest in a degree seldom equalled.

Trollope and Victorian Moral Philosophy

The wickedest of all sins is to run an advertisement without a headline.

Does your ad measure up?

Before I could learn how to grind milled rice to paste for unwrinkling the wickedest face, to plump palm-leaf cups with yeasty rice and sugar for fermenting cakes that ladies eat, drunk, roisterous through afternoons, before I could learn why she cried after the sixth babe was born, why she lost her gold bangles, and why I was a daughter not a son, she left.

The fortune-teller

For me the bizarre and wacky animals and insects of Larson's "The Far Side" have produced the wickedest, most convulsive bouts of sidesplitting laughter, offering a riotously funny view of the world.

See you in the funny papers

Indeed, on page 54, we may read that Joseph Stalin's "cultural commissars began legislating the absolute subordination of form to content in the name of the proletariat," while Barr, "in the service of inherited capital, proclaimed the absolute subordination of content to form," even as "Goebbels, the brightest and wickedest of them all, was orchestrating their perfect match."

The Invisible Dragon: Four Essays on Beauty

In Bodie's 1879 heyday, the population of 10,000 citizens included many considered the wickedest badmen in the West.

Bodie: quiet ghost stirring; gold and silver mining built it. Talk about a new mine is rousing interest

The copy read, "Announcing the weirdest, scariest, funniest, saddest, wickedest, evilest, prettiest, horriblest Halloween costume contest for kids.

Bratwurst, buns and beer: Oktoberfest

Following the incident, which happened at around 3.30am on October 19, there were claims that the 'Wickedest Wickedest' event was overcrowded and tickets had been oversold.

Tragic nightclub incidents in the UK that claimed young people's lives; Three teenagers lost their lives in a 'crush' outside the Greenvale Hotel in Cookstown, Co Tyrone Northern Ireland on St Patrick's Day

Tales of the Old West seem to improve with age, as award-winning historian Tom Clavin (The Heart of Everything That Is) demonstrates in his lively new book, Dodge City: Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and the Wickedest Town in the American West.