spite
English
Alternative forms
- spight (obsolete)
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From a shortening of (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle English despit, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French despit (whence despite), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin dēspectum (“looking down on”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin dēspiciō (“to look down, despise”). Compare also Dutch spijt.
Noun
spite (usually uncountable, plural spites)
- Ill will or hatred toward another, accompanied with the disposition to irritate, annoy, or thwart; a desire to vex or injure; petty malice
- Synonyms: grudge, rancor.
- He was so filled with spite for his ex-wife, he could not hold down a job.
- They did it just for spite.
- c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
- This is the deadly spite that angers.
- 1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC:
- Out of spite, the human beings pretended not to believe that it was Snowball who had destroyed the windmill: they said that it had fallen down because the walls were too thin.
- (obsolete) Vexation; chagrin; mortification.
- c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]:
- "The time is out of joint: O cursed spite."
Translations
ill-will or hatred toward another; a desire to vex or injure
|
vexation, chagrin, mortification
Verb
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- (transitive) To treat maliciously; to try to injure or thwart.
- She soon married again, to spite her ex-husband.
- (transitive, obsolete) To be angry at; to hate.
- (Can we date this quote by Fuller and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- The Danes, then […] pagans, spited places of religion.
- (Can we date this quote by Fuller and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- (transitive) To fill with spite; to offend; to vex.
- (Can we date this quote by Sir W. Temple and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- Darius, spited at the Magi, endeavoured to abolish not only their learning, but their language.
- (Can we date this quote by Sir W. Temple and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
Related terms
Translations
to treat maliciously
to be angry at; to hate
to fill with spite
See also
Etymology 2
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Preposition
spite
Anagrams
Esperanto
Etymology
From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] English spite.
Pronunciation
Adverb
spite
Usage notes
Often used with the accusative or with the preposition al.
Derived terms
Categories:
- English 1-syllable words
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- Rhymes:English/aɪt
- English terms derived from Middle English
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- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
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- Requests for date/Fuller
- Requests for date/Sir W. Temple
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- en:Emotions
- Esperanto terms derived from English
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