The day-to-day operation of the nation's power grid is, in many respects, a great marvel -- a second-by-second balancing act of the tremendously volatile thing known as electricity, a sometimes wicked creature with a mind of its own that can cause great damage in a hurry.
Even when bested by Baggins in a riddle game, Gollum - "a miserable wicked creature" - accuses the Hobbit of stealing his ring and tries to rob it back.
While other girls of her class were brought up to bring Father his paper, and then to disappear into silence, Smith was a "wicked, selfish creature" who mostly got to please herself, her eccentricity and determination (useful qualities in a poet) growing exponentially as a result.
That would be Smaug, a wicked, wily creature voiced by a wicked-in-his-own-right Benedict Cumberbatch.
After spending centuries as a wicked, rootless creature, can Klaus be redeemed and even, possibly, find happiness with Hayley, a werewolf whom he discovers is carrying his child?
The valley, though, knows that the goblins are coming, and makes a plan to thwart the wicked creatures by hiding the rainbow.
The Puritan leader Cotton Mather called her one of the most "impudent, scurrilous, wicked creatures in the world".
"You white people are the nastiest, lowdown, wicked creatures ever to walk the earth," he bellowed, his arms thrashing the air.
A man with a wicked gleam in his eye gives us a sly wink, and then pokes and prods the sluggish creatures, which are prized for their potency in enhancing men's sexual prowess.
