detest
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Middle French detester, from Latin detestari (“to imprecate evil while calling the gods to witness", "denounce", "hate intensely”), from de- + testari (“to testify, bear witness”), from testis (“a witness”); see test, testify.
PronunciationEdit
VerbEdit
detest (third-person singular simple present detests, present participle detesting, simple past and past participle detested)
- (transitive) To dislike intensely; to loathe.
- I detest snakes.
- 1715, Homer; [Alexander] Pope, transl., “Book IX”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], OCLC 670734254:
- Who dares think one thing, and another tell, / My heart detests him as the gates of hell.
- (transitive, obsolete) To witness against; to denounce; to condemn.
- 1655, Thomas Fuller, Church-History of Britain
- The heresy of Nestorius […] was detested in the Eastern churches.
- 1545, John Bale, The Image of Both Churches
- God hath detested them with his own mouth.
- 1655, Thomas Fuller, Church-History of Britain
Usage notesEdit
- This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing). See Appendix:English catenative verbs
SynonymsEdit
- See also Thesaurus:hate
Related termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
to dislike intensely
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See alsoEdit
Further readingEdit
- detest in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- detest in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.