English

Alternative forms

• male engyn (12th - 15th centuries)

Noun

malengine ‎(uncountable)

1. (archaic) Evil intent, bad intention; fraud, deceit.
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur, Book VII:

     I dare sey for good love she bade us to dyner and nat for no male engyne.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queen, III.i:

     the chaste damzell, that had neuer priefe / Of such malengine and fine forgerie, / Did easily beleeue her strong extremitie.

   • 1641, John Milton, Of Reformation:

     for when the protector's brother, Lord Sudley, the admiral, through private malice and mal-engine was to lose his life, no man could be found fitter than Bishop Latimer […] to divulge in his sermon the forged accusations laid to his charge […].

Anagrams

• enameling, meningeal