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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
hostility
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
excite hatred/hostility
▪ He accused sections of the media of trying to excite racial hatred.
provoke hostility
▪ Aggressive behaviour provokes hostility.
vehement opposition/criticism/hostility etc
▪ Despite vehement opposition, the Act became law.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
considerable
▪ The New Urban Left councils aroused considerable hostility from the government, and some anxiety from the leadership of the Labour party.
▪ Assimilation is consequently difficult, particularly as the minority groups experience considerable hostility.
great
▪ As an exercise, it was valuable for Glass even if it aroused a great deal of hostility.
open
▪ They were greeted with open hostility.
▪ Seven pairs of eyes were looking at him with open hostility, even the youngest's who was not yet four.
▪ With no-one yet fully recovered, and as the strange events continue, open hostility breaks out.
▪ At any rate, Miss Gregory and I always eyed each other with open hostility.
outright
▪ Competition and struggle may be the watchwords but this does not necessarily imply outright hostility.
▪ From reluctant acceptance, the village mood was rapidly transformed into outright hostility.
popular
▪ Mr Broady painted a frightening picture of considerable violence and a fair amount of popular hostility to the police.
▪ There would also appear to have been relatively little popular hostility towards papal authority.
public
▪ It was violation of the ability-to-pay principle that caused much of the public hostility to the poll tax.
▪ A similar public hostility toward new religions occurred following the Jonestown mass suicides in 1978.
■ VERB
arouse
▪ The New Urban Left councils aroused considerable hostility from the government, and some anxiety from the leadership of the Labour party.
▪ Consequently, the Franco regime could not institute a programme of land reform without arousing the hostility of the landowners.
express
▪ Inability to express hostility and aggressive feelings directly; 3.
face
▪ It faced hostility from Labour leaders, and never succeeded in gaining an electoral or industrial base.
▪ Although normally quietly spoken, he would be most courageous in facing hostility in discussion, even from large groups of people.
▪ Many had faced hostility from colleagues who were opposed to fundholding.
▪ As governments, both have faced hostility from a powerful neighbour.
▪ He could not expect the support of the Allies, but, more importantly, neither would he face active hostility.
▪ When the going got rough the brothers usually sent a deputy to face the unpleasant hostility to which they would be exposed.
▪ In addition Quintianus faced hostility from a local official, Lytigius, and from Hortensius.
feel
▪ Barney Moss stared at Doyle through the intervening glass-topped door, and Doyle felt the hostility like tiny knives.
▪ Other students, while constantly feeling the pressure of hostility and homophobia, have been none the less extremely successful during their college years.
▪ He could feel reserve, even hostility, coming towards him as real as the smell of roasting meat.
▪ Birkett appears to feel a personal hostility to Mary Kingsley and her autocratic ways, rather than antagonism towards her imperialist activities.
increase
▪ Even before last week's decision bureaucrats were debating whether to lower the target because of the increasing hostility to nuclear power.
▪ The increasing hostility to affirmative action has rubbed off on the diversity movement.
▪ Strikes grew more frequent and violent, the harsh suppression of them by the government increasing hostility towards the republican regime.
▪ This incident was the culmination of increasing hostility among black and white students at Olivet.
meet
▪ The pickets travelling to Kent were met by unbridled hostility from local people, orchestrated by local newspapers.
▪ Black efforts to improve their circumstances were met with hostility and suspicion, and finally, open aggression.
provoke
▪ This had provoked hostility in some quarters towards him - a hostility that lingered still in the family-orientated Marsh End.
▪ In acquiescing, the government was well aware that the final terms would provoke peasant hostility, and took suitable precautions.
▪ Stanley's government proposals on emancipation in mid-May provoked hostility amongst delegates on the grounds of compensation and the apprenticeship scheme.
show
▪ Why should their disciples attack a Church which showed so little hostility to them?
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
arouse hostility/suspicion/resentment/anger etc
▪ Although it quickly subsided, what I was able to catch was sufficient to arouse suspicion.
▪ In schools the increasing number of para.professionals creeping in under the resources umbrella have understandably aroused suspicions in teachers' union branches.
▪ Parked vehicles that arouse suspicion should be reported.
▪ Similarly the threat of a loss arouses anxiety and actual loss causes sorrow, while both situations are likely to arouse anger.
▪ The beguiling simplicity of the flat tax is one reason it arouses suspicion.
▪ The two painters downstairs impinge - directly through their crazy behaviour arousing suspicion against themselves, and indirectly through Porfiry.
▪ They are fascinating and frightening; they arouse anger and they are defiant.
▪ Unless your home is totally dilapidated, steer clear of a complete redecoration prior to selling: it will arouse suspicion.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Given his open hostility, it seemed pointless to try and continue to persuade him.
▪ Recently there has been hostility towards the Prime Minister from members of his own party.
▪ The announcement was greeted with hostility from some employees.
▪ The verdict may worsen racial hostility.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Boys in an autocratic group were more dependent on their leader, and submissive; their hostility was towards each other.
▪ But they also told these stories because they felt so disturbed by the alienation and hostility of some black students.
▪ Consequently, the Franco regime could not institute a programme of land reform without arousing the hostility of the landowners.
▪ Its consequences are hostility to the strong state and vanguard party and sympathy with pluralism and perhaps forms of anarchism.
▪ Now they became centers of hostility.
▪ The hostility and bloodshed associated with the partition resulted in 1 million deaths.
▪ The only council member who can be seen to be motivated by hostility to the family is William, lord Hastings.
▪ They were greeted with open hostility.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Hostility

Hostility \Hos*til"i*ty\, n.; pl. Hostilities. [L. hostilitas: cf. F. hostilit['e].]

  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

    He who proceeds to wanton hostility, often provokes an enemy where he might have a friend.
    --Crabb.

    Syn: Animosity; enmity; opposition; violence; aggression; contention; warfare.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
hostility

early 15c., from Middle French hostilité "enmity" (15c.), or directly from Late Latin hostilitatem (nominative hostilitas) "enmity," from Latin hostilis, from hostis "enemy" (see guest). Hostilities in the sense of "warfare" attested from 1610s.

Wiktionary
hostility

n. (context uncountable English) The state of being hostile.

WordNet
hostility
  1. n. a hostile (very unfriendly) disposition; "he could not conceal his hostility" [syn: ill will]

  2. a state of deep-seated ill-will [syn: enmity, antagonism]

  3. the feeling of a hostile person; "he could no longer contain his hostility" [syn: enmity, ill will]

  4. violent action that is hostile and usually unprovoked [syn: aggression]

  5. acts of overt warfare; "the outbreak of hostilities" [syn: belligerency]

Wikipedia
Hostility

Hostility is seen as form of emotionally charged angry behavior. In everyday speech it is more commonly used as a synonym for anger and aggression.

It appears in several psychological theories. For instance it is a facet of neuroticism in the NEO PI, and forms part of personal construct psychology, developed by George Kelly.

Usage examples of "hostility".

Normans and Saracens, abjured all future hostility against the person or dominions of their conqueror.

She knows that she must acquiesce in the ambitious acquisitions of the present Napoleon, or else encounter his hostility.

They lent acrimony to the impending canvass and increased the mutual hostility of those engaged in the exciting controversy.

Even Mari Ado dropped her hostility like a broken toy as it became clear I was peripheral to the real issue.

Ali Ben Souq added quietly, managing with a reasonable voice to lower the hostility rising in Amir Bedawi.

The Mightiest of All Men, the Excellent Ruler of the universe, who had reduced all hostility to nothing, who had won lustrous glory, ascended the golden baldachin resting on the backs of two elephants also covered in golden cloth.

They conducted almost continuous hostilities with the heavily armed German F-lighters163-foot beaching craft similar to the LST and R-boats 85to 115-foot escort vessels.

A fiercely independent people, the Jivaros combine warlike hostility and a boisterous sense of humor.

The world-wide Centenary celebrations crowning these enterprises were undertaken in such perilous circumstances and carried out despite the formidable obstacles engendered through prolongation of hostilities.

The initiatory contest between Lydon and Tetraides being less deadly than that between the other combatants, no sooner had they advanced to the middle of the arena than, as by common consent, the rest held back, to see how that contest should be decided, and wait till fiercer weapons might replace the cestus, ere they themselves commenced hostilities.

State, which forty years before had been admitted to the Union, against sectional resistance to the right guaranteed by the Constitution, and specifically denominated in the treaty for the acquisition of Louisiana, now, because her Governor refused to furnish troops for the unconstitutional purpose of coercing States, became the subject of special hostility and the object of extraordinary efforts for her subjugation.

Our stupid fighting had gotten us into enough trouble, and anyway Dao had broken our mutual hostility.

If hostilities between the Conjoiners and the Coalition reignited, the Demarchy would not be able to stand aside as they had fifteen years ago.

Long after the cessation of hostilities, Dunster and Progmire are at war.

And she maintained her hostility to Dunster long after we had become, in some sort of way, reconciled.