Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The state of being hostile; antagonism or enmity. synonym: enmity.
  • noun A hostile act.
  • noun Acts of war; overt warfare.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state of being hostile; inimical feeling; antagonism.
  • noun Hostile action; open opposition by war or other means; especially, in the plural, acts of warfare.
  • noun A hostile act which follows a declaration of war.
  • noun Synonyms Animosity, Ill-will, Enmity (see animosity); unfriendliness, opposition, violence, aggression.
  • noun War, fighting.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun State of being hostile; public or private enemy; unfriendliness; animosity.
  • noun An act of an open enemy; a hostile deed; especially in the plural, acts of warfare; attacks of an enemy. See hostilities

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun uncountable The state of being hostile.
  • noun countable A hostile action, especially a military action. See hostilities for specific plural definition.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a hostile (very unfriendly) disposition
  • noun a state of deep-seated ill-will
  • noun the feeling of a hostile person
  • noun violent action that is hostile and usually unprovoked

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Late Latin hostilitas.

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Examples

  • From the time MacDonald was admitted, his family felt that they had "to beg" staff to treat him, only to be met with what they described as "hostility".

    The NHS must accelerate its reforms on treating learning disabled patients 2012

  • Jim asks, "If this hostility is anywhere near the typical Internet experience, is it any wonder that computing and IT are increasingly losing the women?"

    Archive 2007-06-01 Peggy 2007

  • Jim asks, "If this hostility is anywhere near the typical Internet experience, is it any wonder that computing and IT are increasingly losing the women?"

    Friday Link Roundup Peggy 2007

  • We have here an unusual opportunity to appraise the human mind, or to examine, in Earth terms, the roles of good and evil in a man -- his negative side, which you call hostility, lust, violence, and his positive side, which Earth people express as compassion,

    The Enemy Within 1966

  • Two lawyers who formerly worked in the department's Voting Rights section have described what they called hostility from senior officials and career attorneys to pursuing accusations under the Voting Rights Act of minorities harassing white voters.

    KansasCity.com: Front Page 2011

  • Legislature, and what he called a hostility to public education.

    KVUE - Home 2010

  • Separating church and state is not an expression of hostility to religion, but instead affirms the lessons that history teaches about the importance of government being strictly secular.

    The Conservative Assault on the Constitution Erwin Chemerinsky 2010

  • Israel strategically has a choice of attacking these ships and risking hostility from the EU (in the form of cancelled Israeli arms orders) and the US (in the form of delayed/restructured/reduced aid), or they give up on the blockade.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » What’s Going on With Turkey 2010

  • The argument that police hostility is more prevalent with African-Americans may be true to some extent, but this situation was clearly provoked and the outcome was inevitable.

    Obama to meet this week with professor, officer 2009

  • The notion that government neutrality equates to government hostility is absurd.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Mojave Cross Decision (Salazar v. Buono) Handed Down 2010

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