loathe

English

Pronunciation

• (RP) IPA: /ˈləʊð/, X-SAMPA: /"l@UD/
• (GenAm) IPA: /ˈloʊð/, X-SAMPA: /"loUD/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  Rhymes: -əʊð

Etymology

From Middle English lothe, from Old English lāþian. Cognate with Old Norse leiðask ( > Danish ledes, Icelandic leiðast ) (all reflexive), German leiden.

Verb

loathe (third-person singular simple present loathes, present participle loathing, simple past and past participle loathed)

1. To hate, detest, revile.

   I loathe scrubbing toilets.

   I absolutely loathe hydrangeas.

   • 1850, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnets from the Portugese:

     Quick-loving hearts, I thought, may quickly loathe

   • 2003 13 Oct, The New Yorker: 

     This movie is a historical achievement: Clint Eastwood, an icon of violence, has made us loathe violence as an obscenity. “Mystic River” hurts the way sad stories always hurt, but the craft and love with which it has been made transfigure pain into a moviegoer’s rapture

Quotations

• For usage examples of this term, see the citations page.

Usage notes

Sometimes confused with the similarly-pronounced loath, a related adjective.

Synonyms

• hate
• detest
• See also Wikisaurus:hate

Derived terms

• loathing
• loathsome

Translations

hate, detest, revile

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 厭惡 (cmn), 厌恶 (cmn) (yànwù), 討厭 (cmn), 讨厌 (cmn) (tǎoyàn)

• Czech: ošklivit (cs) si, hnusit (cs) si
• Danish: afsky (da)
• Dutch: verafschuwen (nl)
• Esperanto: abomeni (eo)
• Estonian: vihkama, jälestama
• Finnish: inhota (fi)
• French: détester (fr)
• German: verabscheuen (de)

• Italian: detestare (it)
• Japanese: 嫌う (ja) (きらう, kirau)
• Maori: whakaetieti (mi)
• Polish: nienawidzić (pl)
• Portuguese: detestar (pt)
• Russian: ненавидеть (ru) (nenavídet’), не выносить (ru) (ne vynosít'), не любить (ru) (ne ljubít')
• Scots: laith
• Scottish Gaelic: fuathaich (gd)
• Spanish: detestar (es)
• Telugu: అసహ్యించుకొను (te) (asahyiMcukonu)

See also

• abhor
• despise
• detest
• dislike
• hate
• abominate

External links

• loathe in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• loathe in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911