0 a person, especially a man, who treats other people very badly and has no moral principles:
1 a person, esp. an elected official, who treats others badly and cannot be trusted
All it has taken, at this point, is the suggestion of a known scoundrel to set the mob's race hatred in motion.
Oliver would have to be a fool as well as a scoundrel to run off with the books and the money.
For all that, he is benevolent and kind, neither rogue nor scoundrel.
The objectively deserved sufferings of charming scoundrels might evoke crises of faith, while the wellbeing of uncharming saints would be attributed to blind luck.
Its very conventionality reveals that even a scoundrel may compose, in however banal a manner.
Furthermore, scoundrels often meet with success.
The scoundrel will claim that his behaviour should be condoned because to punish him would damage the good name of the country.
I am not suggesting for a moment that there is not need for machinery to deal with the scoundrel.
