Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of, relating to, or characteristic of an enemy: hostile forces; hostile acts.
- adj. Feeling or showing enmity or ill will; antagonistic: a hostile remark.
- adj. Unfavorable to health or well-being; inhospitable or adverse: a hostile climate.
- n. An antagonistic person or thing.
- n. An enemy in warfare.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Of or pertaining to an enemy: as, hostile ground.
- Of inimical character or tendency; having or exhibiting enmity or antagonism; antagonistic: as, a hostile manifesto; hostile criticism.
- Synonyms Averse, Adverse, Inimical, Hostile; unfriendly, warlike. Averse applies to feeling, adverse to action: as, I was very averse to his going; an adverse vote; adverse fortune. Inimical expresses both feeling and action, generally in private affairs. Hostile also expresses both feeling and action, but applies especially to public affairs; where it applies to private matters, it expresses either strong or conspicuous action or feeling, or both, or all.
- n. An enemy: specifically, in the United States, a hostile Indian; an Indian who is engaged in warfare against the whites.
Wiktionary
- adj. Belonging or appropriate to an enemy; showing the disposition of an enemy; showing ill will and malevolence, or a desire to thwart and injure; occupied by an enemy or enemies; inimical; unfriendly.
- n. An enemy.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Belonging or appropriate to an enemy; showing the disposition of an enemy; showing ill will and malevolence, or a desire to thwart and injure; occupied by an enemy or enemies; inimical; unfriendly.
- n. colloq. An enemy; esp., an American Indian in arms against the whites; -- commonly in the plural.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. unsolicited and resisted by the management of the target company ( used of attempts to buy or take control of a business)
- n. troops belonging to the enemy's military forces
- adj. characterized by enmity or ill will
- adj. very unfavorable to life or growth
- adj. impossible to bring into friendly accord
- adj. not belonging to your own country's forces or those of an ally
Etymologies
- 16th Century: from Latin hostīlis, from hostis ("enemy"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin hostīlis, from hostis, enemy; see ghos-ti- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“As soon as we see them start moving towards the east, then they have what we call hostile intent, then we can target them," he said.”
The Wall Street Journal: Gadhafi Stops Rebels in Battle for Oil Port
“SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea threatened Thursday to increase punishment for an American who was sentenced to hard labor for illegally entering the country, citing what it called a hostile U.S. policy toward it.”
“Scott kept his expression hostile, but beneath all the cuts and bruises, he seemed to pale.”
“While they did not specify what the charges would be, they have earlier said that these two were being investigated for illegally entering the country and for what they call hostile acts.”
“But what about the fact that other people at the show, other women at the show might feel what you call the hostile environment.”
“Their alleged crime, according to the new service, entering North Korea illegally, intending what they call hostile acts.”
“The state-run news service reports they will stand trial and that their alleged crime is entering North Korea illegally, intending what they call hostile acts.”
“Now that's what I call a hostile takeover (rimshot).”
“The newspaper went on to say that this move is meant to curb the entry into the country of what it called hostile foreign newspapers.”
“The authorities say negative reports on Zimbabwe which have largely contributed to the scaring-off of potential visitors are a false creation by what they term a hostile Western media.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘hostile’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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ghost
This is Ghost List 2 ( the kind that go 'boo!' ) :P
( open list )
more:
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/macabrephantom, spectral, specter, spectre, spooky, poltergeist, haunt, spirit, banshee, cryptic, shadow, phantasm and 311 more...
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I am : oppressive
Words that are oppressive. Describing anger, violence, aggression (overt and covert), opposition, tension. strong stance and lack of harmony.
Still working on exact definition...angry, enraged, furious, mad, obstreperous, violent, aggressive, truculent, obdurate, obstinate, defiant, hostile and 33 more...
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
unfathomably, glice, cuh, fab, ciggaty, doll, thuggin, oxymoronic, pineapple, succubutt, griming, cheeky and 2369 more... -
The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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Miss Sunshine
she's such a joy.
bereaved, bitter, cheerless, dejected, depressed, despairing, despondent, disconsolate, dismal, distressed, doleful, downcast and 405 more...
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classic695's Words
delighted, elated, energetic, excited, enthusiastic, elevated, happy, contented, fine, pleased, satisfied, compassionate and 168 more...
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Barron's 1100 words you need to know ...
acute, aversion, cogent, evince, gist, hostile, inevitable, intrinsic, jettison, lucrative, paramount, prevalent and 8 more...
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Apples to Apples: Green Cards
A complete list of the green cards (adjectives) from the popular word game.
absurd, addictive, adorable, aged, American, ancient, animated, annoying, appetizing, arrogant, awesome, awkward and 237 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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Coruscatingly what?
List of adjectival terms, from aggressive to zippered, paired in printed materials with the adverb coruscatingly, identified by a simple query to Google Search (Books).
...propaedeutic...aggressive, angry, articulate, astringent, aware, beautiful, big, blinding, bright, brilliant, brutal, cerebral and 93 more...
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Misc. Words.
Words I like to use, words I like but may forget.
corrosion, astonish, solace, ferment, continuum, kinesthetic, permeate, repose, caprice, cardinal, discourse, surrender and 610 more...
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feeling words
twitterpated, loquacious, ambiguous, pensive, sluggish, anxious, adventurous, curious, abandoned, absent-minded, abrasive, abused and 653 more...
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wordplay terms
affix-clipping, alternade, alternating termi..., backswitch, balanced letter sum, beheadment, binade, capitonyms, catoptron, changeover, changing offset s..., charade and 96 more...
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suzyg's Words
brandish, recompence, shopping, dichotomy, paradigm, reverse osmosis, anyway, despite, drunk, degenerate, insipid, grateful and 438 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for hostile.
PossibleUnderscore Hostility sounds better than hostile.
Jul 18, 2009
oroboros In wordplay, a word wherein no letter can be inserted anywhere to form another word: e.g., ahem.
--Chris Cole, Wordplay May 23, 2008