"malcontent" definition, meaning, and origin

Adjective

Dissatisfied with current conditions; disaffected, discontented, rebellious.
- [Alban] Butler also commends the piety of Simon Montfort, the persecutor of the Albigenses, and the father of the famous malcontent earl of Leicester, who flourished in the reign of king Henry III. - 1810, Joseph...
- The duke of Gloucester was a sickly child […] he died of a sore throat, and rash fever, occasioned by an imprudent participation in the festivities of his birthday. The famous humourist, Dr. [John] Radcliffe, the...
- Sir, I will stake any thing short of my salvation, that those who are malcontent now, will be more malcontent three years hence, than they are at this day. I have no favor for this Constitution. - 1851, Hugh A. Garland,...

From Middle French malcontent, from mal- + content; compare Late Latin malecontentus.

A person who is not satisfied with current conditions; a discontented person, a rebel.
- The diſcord rather than the muſick is heard from the malcontent Malevole's chamber. - c. 1603, John Marston; John Webster, The Malcontent […], London; republished in [Isaac Reed, editor], A Select Collection of Old...
- For is it not eaſy to ſee, that a Prince made odious and contemptible, will ſoon be removed from his Throne, when it is in the Power of the Malecontents to bring about ſuch a fatal Revolution? - 1734, “a country...
- He is the victim of circumstances, and their martyr. His asseverations of the facts are so frequent and so earnest, that it is impossible to dispute it. […] Everywhere confronted by implacable circumstance, what...
A state of discontentment or dissatisfaction; something that causes discontent.
- If there was malcontent on his part, it did not spring from economic limitations alone, but also from the effect of these economic limitations upon his social and legal status as a small farmer. The state of constant...

To cause discontent or dissatisfaction.
- […] James Bond adventure with a Ward Bond delivery, reams of malcontenting and anti-literary remarks, first-class manipulation of Anglo-Saxon's juicier words, and quotations from the Great Books and from William Kite's...