Definition

1. Noun:

   • A desire to hurt, annoy, or offend someone: A feeling of ill will or malice that motivates a person to cause harm or distress to another.
   • A grudge or malicious feeling: A specific instance of such a feeling, often persistent.

2. Verb:

   • To deliberately hurt, annoy, or offend (someone): To treat someone with malice or to act in a way intended to cause them displeasure or injury.

Usage

• Noun: Used to describe a malicious feeling or motivation. Often appears in the phrase "out of spite" or "in spite of."
• Verb: Used to describe the action of intentionally causing someone else distress or harm.

Examples

• Noun:

  • He refused the offer out of pure spite. (His refusal was motivated only by a desire to be hurtful.)
  • She felt a pang of spite when she saw her rival succeed. (She had a malicious feeling upon seeing her rival's success.)
  • In spite of the rain, we went for a walk. (This phrase means "despite" or "notwithstanding" the rain. It is a fixed idiom.)

• Verb:

  • He only said that to spite me. (His words were intended solely to hurt my feelings.)
  • She spited her neighbors by playing loud music late at night. (She annoyed her neighbors deliberately.)

Advanced Usage

• "In spite of": A prepositional phrase meaning "without being affected or prevented by; despite." It is a very common idiom.
  • In spite of his injury, he finished the race.
• "Out of spite" / "From spite" / "In spite": Adverbial phrases indicating that an action is motivated by malice.
  • She canceled the meeting out of spite.

Variants and Related Words

• Spiteful (adj.): Having or showing a desire to harm, anger, or defeat someone.
  • He made a spiteful remark about her work.
• Spitefully (adv.): In a spiteful manner.
  • She spitefully revealed his secret.

Synonyms

• Noun: Malice, ill will, rancor, venom, grudge, malevolence.
• Verb: Annoy, hurt, offend, vex, injure.

Related Idioms

• "To cut off one's nose to spite one's face": To harm oneself in the process of trying to harm another; to act out of pique in a way that damages oneself more than the target of one's anger.
  • Quitting his job just to annoy his boss was like cutting off his nose to spite his face.

Noun

1. malevolence by virtue of being malicious or spiteful or nasty
2. feeling a need to see others suffer

Verb

1. hurt the feelings of
   • She hurt me when she did not include me among her guests
   • This remark really bruised my ego