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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
spiteful
adjective
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a spiteful liar
▪ Failure had made him bitter and spiteful.
▪ I tried to like Julie but I couldn't forget how spiteful she'd been to me in the past.
▪ On the rare occasions when he was angry, Lowry could be spiteful and petty.
▪ That was a wicked and spiteful thing to do.
▪ You shouldn't be so spiteful to your sister.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ He had entered the police station in a storm of self-righteous protest and had been by turn hectoring, belligerent and spiteful.
▪ His book challenged Galileo in the most spiteful way.
▪ His white face was spiteful, threatening and suggestive.
▪ How could she tell him why Matilda had made such a spiteful remark?
▪ Loeb, the newspaper publisher, gained a national reputation as a spiteful manipulator of politics.
▪ She had given him a spiteful look as she left, taking little catlike steps.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Spiteful

Spiteful \Spite"ful\, a. Filled with, or showing, spite; having a desire to vex, annoy, or injure; malignant; malicious; as, a spiteful person or act.
--Shak. -- Spite"ful*ly, adv. Spite"ful*ness, n.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
spiteful

mid-15c., from spite (n.) + -ful. Related: Spitefully; spitefulness.

Wiktionary
spiteful

a. Filled with, or showing, spite; having a desire to vex, annoy, or injure; malignant; malicious

WordNet
spiteful

adj. showing malicious ill will and a desire to hurt; motivated by spite; "a despiteful fiend"; "a truly spiteful child"; "a vindictive man will look for occasions for resentment" [syn: despiteful, vindictive]

Wikipedia
Spiteful

Spiteful may refer to:

  • , various Royal Navy ships

  • Spiteful-class destroyer, a Royal Navy class of two destroyers built in 1898 and 1899
  • , a Union Army American Civil War steamer originally the Army tug Spiteful

  • Supermarine Spiteful, a fighter intended to replace the Spitfire, but made obsolete by jet aircraft

Usage examples of "spiteful".

Image is everything, sure, but Bonny suddenly has the spiteful hope that Mona is bucktoothed and fish-eyed, eczemaed and jug-eared, when you peel back her digital veneer.

My schoolfellows met me with spiteful and merciless jibes because I was not like any of them.

In the little corner of society in which Countess Steno, the Gorkas and Lincoln Maitland moved, who was hypocritical and spiteful enough to practise that counsel?

For I could see how spiteful she was being when she teazed me about your Father.

Niketas that for two years now the Milanese had created trouble for Frederick with spiteful acts and skirmishes, and the following year the emperor, with the support of Novara, Asti, Vercelli, the marquess of Monferrato, the Marquess Malaspina, the count of Biandrate, with Como, Lodi, Bergamo, Cremona, Pavia, and some others, had again laid siege to Milan.

Many people think my farm patients are all the same, but cows, pigs, sheep and horses can be moody, placid, vicious, docile, spiteful, loving.

Sorkin, like most psychosomatic-level neurotics, was spiteful to his enemies and overgenerous to his friends.

Lanyard did his best with his blandest smile to make amends for having discomfited the prince by getting home later than he had promised to, his good-natured effort was repaid only by a spiteful scowl.

From then on he kept the conversation in his own hands, not giving Deirdre much chance to make any more spiteful remarks, talking about a hundred and one topics with an ease Polly envied.

And haunteth it with spiteful toads and bats, With serpents fell, with ewts and clawful cats.

The two disgraced mandarins watched Batu leave, one with an expression of sad regret and the other with an expression of spiteful retribution.

Presumably, Andre deCourteney slept, though it might have been his choice to leave his material body, to contest against ill wishes and nightmare thoughts directed at his friends by spiteful inhabitants of the mountains, to send them flying before his undeflectable wrath.

Consequently spiteful things were said of him, and it was hinted that he wore a blue apron with white frills while preparing his meal, and more than one Letter to the Editor had suggested that if he knew as much about politics, or economics, or world affairs or whatever it might be, as he did about cooking, The Bellman would be a better paper.

Ida Ruth and Jill, like the spiteful stepsisters, were simperingly nice to her in person but talked about her behind her back every chance they could.

Arya Andine seemed on the verge of several spiteful remarks, but evidently Bheid's little sermon had taken some of the wind out of her sails, and she finally announced that she had a splitting headache and was going to bed.