Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To detest thoroughly; abhor.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To hate extremely; abhor; detest.
  • Synonyms Abhor, Detest, etc. See hate.
  • Detested; held in abomination.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To turn from as ill-omened; to hate in the highest degree, as if with religious dread; loathe.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb find repugnant

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin abōminārī, abōmināt-, to deprecate as a bad omen : ab-, away; see ab– + ōmen, omen.]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word abominate.

Examples

  • "I hate the French cookery, and abominate garlick," Tobias Smollett told his readers 245 years ago, with a snooty disregard for foreigners that runs through too much travel writing today.

    Travel writing: Lost art in search of a lost world | Editorial 2011

  • It had occurred in the course of learning the nature of white men and of learning to abominate them.

    Chapter 2 2010

  • "I hate the French cookery, and abominate garlick," Tobias Smollett told his readers 245 years ago, with a snooty disregard for foreigners that runs through too much travel writing today.

    Travel writing: Lost art in search of a lost world | Editorial 2011

  • I detest and loathe and despise and abore and abominate her

    Dear Anjali Melissa Glenn Haber 2010

  • I detest and loathe and despise and abore and abominate her

    Dear Anjali Melissa Glenn Haber 2010

  • I refer to slavery, Mistuh Comber, which they affect to abominate, but which we of the South hold to be a nat'ral condition which, for better or worse, is inevitable A strangled oath came from within Clotho's hood.

    THE NUMBERS 2010

  • You're filth, you're cack, you're the ooze of a burst boil; I abominate you, you towering mound of corrupted slime.

    James Gordon Brown on markets and spinning facts. FIDO The Dog 2009

  • You're filth, you're cack, you're the ooze of a burst boil; I abominate you, you towering mound of corrupted slime.

    Jeremy Clarkson on fine form. FIDO The Dog 2009

  • I abominate obscenities, but she is a bitch—a stringy, fawning female dog.

    TOO MANY MURDERS Colleen McCullough 2009

  • You're filth, you're cack, you're the ooze of a burst boil; I abominate you, you towering mound of corrupted slime.

    Gordon Brown toilet roll. FIDO The Dog 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • 1906 US Railway Assn. Standard Cipher Code meaning "do not accept until all conditions are satisfactory".

    January 19, 2013