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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Spite

Spite (spīt), n. [Abbreviated fr. despite.] 1. Ill-will or hatred toward another, accompanied with the disposition to irritate, annoy, or thwart; petty malice; grudge; rancor; despite. Pope.

This is the deadly spite that angers. Shak.

2. Vexation; chargrin; mortification. [R.] Shak.

In spite of, or Spite of, in opposition to all efforts of; in defiance or contempt of; notwithstanding. "Continuing, spite of pain, to use a knee after it had been slightly ibnjured." H. Spenser. "And saved me in spite of the world, the devil, and myself." South. "In spite of all applications, the patient grew worse every day." Arbuthnot. See Syn. under Notwithstanding. — To owe one a spite, to entertain a mean hatred for him.

Syn. — Pique, rancor; malevolence; grudge. — Spite, Malice. Malice has more reference to the disposition, and spite to the manifestation of it in words and actions. It is, therefore, meaner than malice, thought not always more criminal. " Malice . . . is more frequently employed to express the dispositions of inferior minds to execute every purpose of mischief within the more limited circle of their abilities." Cogan. "Consider eke, that spite availeth naught." Wyatt. See Pique.

Spite, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Spited; p. pr. & vb. n. Spiting.] 1. To be angry at; to hate. [Obs.]

The Danes, then . . . pagans, spited places of religion. Fuller.

2. To treat maliciously; to try to injure or thwart.

3. To fill with spite; to offend; to vex. [R.]

Darius, spited at the Magi, endeavored to abolish not only their learning, but their language. Sir. W. Temple.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.