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spite

Pronunciation: /spaɪt/

The English word “spite” has 6 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. Ill will or hatred toward another, accompanied with the desire to unjustifiably irritate, annoy, or thwart; a want to disturb or put out another; mild malice.
  2. Vexation; chagrin; mortification.

verb

  1. To treat maliciously; to try to hurt or thwart.
  2. To be angry at; to hate.
  3. To fill with spite; to offend; to vex.

preposition

  1. Notwithstanding; despite.

Etymology

From Middle English spit, a shortening of despit (whence despite), from Old French despit, from Latin dēspectum (“looking down on”), from Latin dēspiciō (“to look down, despise”). Compare also North Frisian spīt, spīd (“regret”), Saterland Frisian Spiet (“regret, remorse”), West Frisian spyt (“regret”), Dutch spijt (“regret, remorse”), German Low German Spiet (“anger, regret, remorse”), German…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.