Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A feud between two families or clans that arises out of a slaying and is perpetuated by retaliatory acts of revenge; a blood feud.
- n. A bitter, destructive feud.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A condition of private war in which the nearest of kin execute vengeance on the slayer of a relative; a blood-feud In Corsica the vendetta is regarded as a duty incumbent on the family of the murdered man, and, failing to reach the real murderer, they take vengeance on his relatives. The practice exists, although to a more limited extent, in Sicily, Sardinia, Calabria, Afghanistan, etc., and in certain rude and remote districts of the United States.
Wiktionary
- n. A bitter, destructive feud, normally between two families, clans, or factions, in which each injury or slaying is revenged: a blood feud.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A blood feud; private revenge for the murder of a kinsman.
- n. Any feud or contention that is bitter and prolonged; however, the deep enmity may be held by only one party to the dispute.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a feud in which members of the opposing parties murder each other
Etymologies
- From Italian vendetta. (Wiktionary)
- Italian, from Latin vindicta, revenge; see vindictive. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The vendetta is still the custom in Sardinia, and a person is respected if he takes blood revenge on the killer of a kinsman.”
““The only thing I’d like to respond to is your choice of the word vendetta.””
“As a DEM you don't carry a big stick nor believe in vendetta.”
“The tendency to take summary vengeance, called vendetta, still exists in the villages; where the people having no social amusements, nothing to read, nor any other resource than cards during the winter nights, are apt to quarrel over trifles; which, fanned by their local petty jealousies, assisted often by the generous nature of their wine, ripen into deadly feuds.”
Itinerary through Corsica by its Rail, Carriage & Forest Roads
“The vendetta was the chief law of Corsican society up to comparatively recent times; and its effects are still visible in the life of the stern islanders.”
“Though the vendetta is a natural outgrowth of Italian soil, yet masses of men are seldom, like individuals, animated solely by the spirit of revenge.”
A History of Rome During the Later Republic and Early Principate
“With the right access, a cheap thumb drive and a vendetta are the only ingredients an insider needs to obtain and leak secrets.”
“Conservative claims that Judge Sotomayor disregarded the law out of some kind of vendetta against the Second Amendment are baseless.”
Wonk Room » Factcheck: Judge Sotomayor’s Real Record On The Second Amendment
“One statement calls the allegations a "make believe" story that is part of a "vendetta" against the Ethiopian people.”
Voice of America: Rights Report on Ethiopia Sparks Fierce Debate
“What, no mention of our "vendetta" charge into Iraq for the mysterious no-show weapons of mass destruction?”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘vendetta’.
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important
shamanism, consol, sanguine, iffy, affinity, concatenation, honed, innumberable, aiden, inexorable, vet, suss and 176 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abject, abjure, abscission, abscond, abstemious, abstinence, abysmal, accretion and 787 more...
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select words
luminous, radiant, malicious, zeal, ojalá, voluptuary, rubbish, purlicue, consarnit, upstart, precis, robinsonade and 66 more...
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February 2012
filiopietistic, bifurcate, enclave, wedlock, decadent, unduly, defunct, lapel, tumescent, capitulation, leaden, scintilla and 83 more...
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The Vocabulary of Scholars
Words often used in News paper articles, College textbooks, Novels, Plays, Orations, and other literary prose.
You don't know them now, but bet your bottom dollar you will soon!paradigm, contingent, vendetta, patriarch, faction, partisan, inducement
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Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
thunderfuck, incredible, merp, sara, flopparoo, smother, fugly, buer, plum, canny, nefelibata, cuntbucket and 2455 more... -
Good for Academics
Gahh!! Study!
supplant, usurp, finagle, winnow, draconian, abut, collude, swindle, objectify, incite, decadent, obstinate and 327 more...
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Morthalion's Words
supercilious, kvetch, kvass, splurge, erroneous, pugnacious, macabre, gauche, conglomerate, abyss, paraphernalia, kleptomania and 285 more...
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Personal Vocabulary List
All my favourite words that I come across!
veritable, incongruence, rigamorole, letcherous, revolting, repulsive, reputrid, rapatious, forays, guise, placate, paradigm and 1162 more...
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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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NTDW1
template, modal, sublingual, tandem, polycentric, septuagenarian, token, irrevocable, denotive, augural, aberrant, phlebotomy and 1188 more...
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Word of the day.
Some days, there will be a word. That word is the word of the day. Other days shall remain wordless. That's just the way things go.
petulant, anisometropia, zoroaster, cram, affinity, proprietary, cupertino effect, sidereal, schmutz, icosanoids, vendetta, bougie and 137 more...
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Ny New Words
From Barron Wordlist the New Words
lap, lank, languor, languish, lancet, lance, lampoon, larceny, larder, largess, lascivious, latitude and 120 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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kewpid's Words
moleskine, araldite, dessicate, cellar door, grotesque, fallacy, vendetta, raindrop, panacea, ethereal, hircus, treppenwitz and 446 more...
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From Book - SAT & College Dictionary ...
ebb, exotic, immure, abeyance, panegyric, debonair, protege, dissipate, frantic, penitent, abject, edify and 871 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for vendetta.
victoriapl "It seemed to me that he expressed his regret for having passed ten years in vendetta with his good neighbor Orlandi, and he offered him the white hen which he carried as reparation."
The Corsican Brothers by Alexandre Dumas Dec 2, 2007