GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

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1.       
   Sinister (sĭnĭstẽr; 277), a. [Accented on the middle syllable by the older poets, as Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden.] [L. sinister: cf. F. sinistre.]
   1. On the left hand, or the side of the left hand; left; -- opposed to dexter, or right. “Here on his sinister cheek.”  Shak.
   
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   My mother's blood
   
   Runs on the dexter cheek, and this sinister
   
   Bounds in my father's Shak.
   
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   ☞ In heraldy the sinister side of an escutcheon is the side which would be on the left of the bearer of the shield, and opposite the right hand of the beholder.
   
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   2. Unlucky; inauspicious; disastrous; injurious; evil; -- the left being usually regarded as the unlucky side; as, “sinister influences”.
   
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   All the several ills that visit earth,
   
   Brought forth by night, with a sinister birth. B. Jonson.
   
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   3. Wrong, as springing from indirection or obliquity; perverse; dishonest; corrupt; as, “sinister aims”.
   
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   Nimble and sinister tricks and shifts. Bacon.
   
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   He scorns to undermine another's interest by any sinister or inferior arts. South.
   
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   He read in their looks . . . sinister intentions directed particularly toward himself. Sir W. Scott.
   
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   4. Indicative of lurking evil or harm; boding covert danger; as, “a sinister countenance”.
   
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   Bar sinister. (Her.) See under Bar, n. -- Sinister aspect (Astrol.), an appearance of two planets happening according to the succession of the signs, as Saturn in Aries, and Mars in the same degree of Gemini. -- Sinister base, Sinister chief. See under Escutcheon.
   
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