Definition of Hostility

1. Noun. A hostile (very unfriendly) disposition. "He could not conceal his hostility"

Exact synonyms: Ill Will
Generic synonyms: Unfriendliness
Specialized synonyms: Virulence, Virulency

2. Noun. A state of deep-seated ill-will.
Exact synonyms: Antagonism, Enmity
Generic synonyms: State
Specialized synonyms: Latent Hostility, Tension, State Of War, War, Cold War, Suspicion
Specialized synonyms: Cold War
Derivative terms: Antagonise, Antagonist, Antagonistic, Antagonistic, Antagonize, Inimical

3. Noun. The feeling of a hostile person. "He could no longer contain his hostility"

4. Noun. Violent action that is hostile and usually unprovoked.
Exact synonyms: Aggression
Generic synonyms: Action
Specialized synonyms: Meat Grinder, Force, Violence, Pillage, Pillaging, Plundering
Derivative terms: Aggress, Hostile

Definition of Hostility

1. n. State of being hostile; public or private enemy; unfriendliness; animosity.

Definition of Hostility

1. Noun. The state of being hostile. ¹

2. Noun. A hostile action, especially a military action. See hostilities for specific plural definition. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Hostility

1. [n -TIES]

Medical Definition of Hostility

1. Tendency to feel anger toward and to seek to inflict harm upon a person or group. (12 Dec 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Hostility

hostesses
hostessing
hostessship
hostie
hosties
hostile
hostile expedition
hostile fire
hostile takeover
hostile takeovers
hostile witness
hostile witnesses
hostilely
hostiles
hostilities
hostility (current term)
hostilize
hostilized
hostilizing
hosting
hostings
hostis humani generis
hostler
hostlers
hostless
hostly
hostmask
hostmasks
hostmaster
hostmasters

Literary usage of Hostility

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Human Nature and the Social Order by Charles Horton Cooley (1922)
"CHAPTER VII hostility SIMPLE OR ANIMAL ... SOCIAL STANDARDS—FEAR I GIVE a chapter to hostility not only because it is an important phase of human nature, ..."

2. Dictionary of National Biography by LESLIE. STEPHEN (1899)
"... wisdom of maintaining friendly relations with France in view of the irrevocable hostility of Spain, but he regarded it as essential to English interests ..."

3. A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages by Henry Charles Lea (1887)
"The aggressions of the Mendicants had raised a deep and widespread hostility against them in all ranks of the clergy, who recognized not only that their ..."

4. Division and reunion, 1829-1889 by Woodrow Wilson (1893)
"Jackson's hostility to the Bank (1829, 1830). Such a decision was of course conclusive of all legal controversy. But it had not by any means satisfied all ..."

5. The Greville Memoirs: A Journal of the Reigns of King George IV., King by Charles Greville (1902)
"... —Lord Palmerston's hostility to France—Lord Palmerston and the Tories—His Extraordinary Position—A Communication from M. Guizot —Death of the Duchess of ..."

6. A History of the Inquisition of Spain by Henry Charles Lea (1906)
"CHAPTER V. POPULAR hostility THE preceding chapters illustrate some of the causes that provoked popular hatred of the Inquisition, but these were by no ..."

7. Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1853)
"... appearance of discomfiture, quite satisfied him of the correctness of his surmise. Accordingly, his hostility towards Lady Lee was immensely aggravated ..."

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