Animosity definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (8)

American Heritage Dictionary (2)

noun Bitter hostility or open enmity; active hatred.
noun A hostile feeling or act. See Synonyms at enmity.

Century Dictionary (4)

Animation; courage; spiritedness. Cato, before he durst give the fatal stroke, spent part of the night in reading the Immortality of Plato, thereby confirming his wavering hand unto the animosity of that attempt. Sir T. Browne, Urn-Burial, iv.
Active enmity; hatred or ill-will which manifests itself in active opposition. No sooner did the duke receive this appeal from the wife of his enemy, than he generously forgot all feeling of animosity, and determined to go in person to his succor. Irving, Granada, p. 48. Supposing no animosity is felt, the hurting another by accident arouses a genuine feeling of regret in all adults save the very brutal. H. Spencer, Prin. of Psychol., § 529.
Synonyms Animosity, Ill-will, Enmity, Malice, Hostility, Hatred, Hate, Malevolence, Malignity, Rancor, Grudge, Spite. These words differ from those described under acrimony, anger, and antipathy (which see) in that they represent deeper feelings or more permanent passions. Ill-will may represent the minimum of feeling, being a willing or wishing of ill to another, generally without disposition to be active in bringing the evil about. Enmity is a somewhat stronger feeling, and it often gratifies itself in trifling and cowardly ways. Animosity is more intense than enmity; it is avowed and active, and what it does is more serious than the covert attacks of enmity or the hasty attacks of spite. Malice is pure badness of heart, delighting in harm to others for its own sake. Hostility is less passionate than animosity, but not less avowed or active, being a state of mind inclining one to aggressive warfare. Hatred and hate are the general words to cover all these feelings; they may also be ultimate, expressing the concentration of the whole nature in an intense ill-will. Malevolence is more casual and temporary than malice, arising upon occasion furnished, and characterized by a wish that evil may befall another rather than by an intention to injure. Malignity is malice intensified; it is hatred in its aspect of destructiveness or desire to strike at the most vital interests of another. Rancor is hatred or malice turned sour or bitter; it is implacable in its vindictiveness. A grudge is a feeling of sullen ill-will or enmity, caused by a trifling wrong, and likely to be appeased when it has spent itself in a similar return against the offender. Spite is sudden, resentful, and generally quite as well pleased to mortify as to damage another; it may be as strong as malice or as weak as pique. The personal animosity of a most ingenious man was the real cause of the utter destruction of Warburton's critical reputation. I. D'Israeli, Lit. Quar., p. 397. That thereby he may gather The ground of your ill-will, and so remove it. Shak., Rich. III., i. 3. No place is so propitious to the formation either of close friendships or of deadly enmities as an Indiaman. Macaulay, Warren Hastings. And malice in all critics reigns so high, That for small errors they whole plays decry. Dryden, Prol. to Tyrannic Love, 1. 3. As long as truth in the statement of fact, and logic in the inference from observed fact, are respected, there need be no hostility between evolutionist and theologian. E. R. Lankester, Degeneration, p. 69. Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit, For I am sick when I do look on thee. Shak., M. N. D., ii. 2. For thou art so possess'd with murderous hate, That 'gainst thyself thou stick'st not to conspire. Shak., Sonnets, x. The deadly energy [of magic verses] existing solely in the words of the imprecation and the malevolence of the reciter, which was supposed to render them effectual at any distance. T. F. Thiselton Dyer, Folk-lore of Shak., p. 508. The political reigns of terror have been reigns of madness and malignity, — a total perversion of opinion; society is upside down, and its best men are thought too bad to live. Emerson, Courage. He who has sunk deepest in treason is generally possessed by a double measure of rancor against the loyal and the faithful. De Quincey, Essenes, ii. I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him. Shak., M. of V., i. 3. Below me, there, is the village, and looks how quiet and small! And yet bubbles o'er like a city, with gossip, scandal, and spite. Tennyson, Maud, iv. 2.

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I had offers from the men in the city prison to vote properly if released; various communications from lodging-house keepers as to the prices of the vote they were ready to deliver; everywhere appeared that animosity which is evoked only when a man feels that his means of livelihood is threatened. — 20 Years At Hull House
Aside from the virulent whoop-de-doo about events in Gaza, every bit as much animosity is being aimed at "moderate" arab countries. — US_Homepage_Featured_Stories
He also discussed his "visceral" contempt for me, indicating that personal animosity was a factor in his remarks. — WordPress.com News
We realize that part of his animosity is just a put-on; he's a curmudgeon who never learned decent manners, but it takes almost nothing for the charming Hmong family next door to break through all that. — Lean Left
Her enemies conspired to drown her; but, through the intervention of Germain of Auxerre, their animosity was finally overcome. — This Is Life!: Revolutions Around the Cruciform Axis

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enmity · antipathy · antagonism · jealousy · rivalry · feud · hate · malice · prejudice · discontent · rancour · misunderstanding

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

Middle English animosite, from Old French, from Late Latin animōsitās, courage, from Latin animōsus, bold, from animus, soul, spirit; see anə- in Indo-European roots.

Century Dictionary (1)

from Middle English animosite, from Old French animosite, French animosité, animosity, = Provencal animositat = Spanish animosidad, valor, = Portuguese animosidade = Italian animosità, animositade, animositate, courage, animosity, from Latin animosita(t-)s, courage, spirit, vehemence, in ecclesiastical L. also wrath, enmity, from animosus: see animose.

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