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Webster 1913 Edition


Hostility

Hos-til′i-ty

,
Noun.
;
pl.
Hostilities
(#)
.
[L.
hostilitas
: cf. F.
hostilité
.]
1.
State of being hostile; public or private enemy; unfriendliness; animosity.
Hostility
being thus suspended with France.
Hayward.
2.
An act of an open enemy; a hostile deed; especially in the plural, acts of warfare; attacks of an enemy. See
hostilities
Syn. – Animosity; enmity; opposition; violence; aggression; contention; warfare.

Webster 1828 Edition


Hostility

HOSTIL'ITY

,
Noun.
[L. hostilitas, from hostis, an enemy.]
1.
The state of war between nations or states; the actions of an open enemy; aggression; attacks of an enemy. These secret enmities broke out in hostilities.
Hostility being thus suspended with France.
We have carried on even our hostilities with humanity.
2.
Private enmity; a sense less proper.

Definition 2024


hostility

hostility

English

Noun

hostility (countable and uncountable, plural hostilities)

  1. (uncountable) The state of being hostile.
    • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essayes, London: Edward Blount, OCLC 946730821, II.12:
      There is no hostilitie so excellent, as that which is absolutely Christian.
    • 2011 October 1, Phil McNulty, Everton 0-2 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport:
      But with Goodison Park openly directing its full hostility towards Atkinson, Liverpool went ahead when Carroll turned in his first Premier League goal of the season after 70 minutes.
    • 2013 September 28, Kenan Malik, "London Is Special, but Not That Special," New York Times (retrieved 28 September 2013):
      The polarization of wealth and the polarization of attitudes to diversity are not unrelated. A key reason for popular hostility to immigrants is that to many people, particularly within working-class communities, immigration has become a symbol of unacceptable change.
  2. (countable) A hostile action, especially a military action. See hostilities for specific plural definition.

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