Definitions

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

  • noun Extreme dislike; aversion or repugnance. synonym: enmity.
  • noun A feeling of aversion.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Natural aversion; instinctive contrariety or opposition in feeling; an aversion felt at the presence or thought of a particular object; distaste; disgust; repugnance.
  • noun A contrariety in the properties or affections of matter, as of oil and water.
  • noun An object of natural aversion or settled dislike.
  • noun Synonyms Hatred, Dislike, Antipathy, Disgust, Aversion, Reluctance, Repugnance. Hatred is the deepest and most permanent of these feelings; it is rarely used except of persons.
  • noun Dislike is the most general word, and depends upon the connection for its strength; it is opposed to liking or fondness.
  • noun Antipathy expresses most of constitutional feeling and least of volition: the turkey-cock has an antipathy to the color red; many people have an intense antipathy to snakes, rats, toads. In figurative use, antipathy is a dislike that seems constitutional toward persons, things, conduct, etc.; hence it involves a dislike for which sometimes no good reason can be given.
  • noun Antipathy is opposed primarily to sympathy, but often to mere liking.
  • noun Disgust is the loathing, first of physical taste, then of esthetic taste, then of spiritual taste or moral feeling.
  • noun Aversion is a fixed disposition to avoid something which displeases, disturbs, or annoys: as, quiet people have an aversion to noise. It is a dislike, settled and generally strong.
  • noun Reluctance and repugnance by derivation imply a natural struggle, as of hesitation or recoil; with reluctance it is simply the will holding back in dislike of some proposed act, while with repugnance it is a greater resistance or one accompanied with greater feeling, and generally in regard to an act, course, idea, etc., rarely to persons or things. See animosity.

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

  • noun Contrariety or opposition in feeling; settled aversion or dislike; repugnance; distaste.
  • noun Natural contrariety; incompatibility; repugnancy of qualities.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Contrariety or opposition in feeling; settled aversion or dislike; repugnance; distaste.
  • noun Natural contrariety; incompatibility; repugnancy of qualities; as, oil and water have antipathy.

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

  • noun the object of a feeling of intense aversion; something to be avoided
  • noun a feeling of intense dislike

Etymologies

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

[Latin antipathīa, from Greek antipatheia, from antipathēs, of opposite feelings : anti-, anti- + pathos, feeling; see pathos.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek ἀντιπάθεια (antipatheia), noun of state from ἀντιπαθής (antipathes, "opposed in feeling"), from ἀντί (anti-, "against") + root of πάθος (pathos, "feeling").

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Examples

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  • "Ye matron censors of this childish age,

    Whose peering eye and wrinkled front declare

    A fixed antipathy to young and fair ..."

    Sheridan, School for Scandal

    January 2, 2008

  • In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: "I wonder if I shall fall right through the earth! How funny it'll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downward! The Antipathies, I think—" (she was rather glad there WAS no one listening, this time, as it didn't sound at all the right word) "—but I shall have to ask them what the name of the country is, you know. Please, Ma'am, is this New Zealand or Australia?"

    The word Alice was looking for was antipode.

    July 18, 2008

  • The antipathy to "style" is always an antipathy to a given style. There are no style-less works of art, only works of art belonging to different, more or less complex stylistic traditions and conventions.

    Susan Sontag, "Against Interpretation"

    November 19, 2011