Search the Dictionary

State of being hostile; public or private enemy; unfriendliness; animosity. Hostility being thus suspended with France. Hayward.

To commit the first act of hostility or offense; to begin a quarrel or controversy; to make an attack; -- with on.

The first attack, or act of hostility; the first act of injury, or first act leading to a war or a controversy; unprovoked attack; assault; as, a war of aggression. "Aggressions of power." Hallam

The person who first attacks or makes an aggression; he who begins hostility or a quarrel; an assailant. The insolence of the aggressor is usually proportioned to the tameness of the sufferer. Ames.

arms, educated to the profession of a soldier. -- In arms, armed for war; in a state of hostility. -- Small arms, portable firearms known as muskets, rifles, carbines, pistols, etc. -- A stand of arms, a complete set for one soldier, as a musket, bayonet, cartridge box and belt; frequently, the musket and bayonet a…

e would most avoid Milton. He carefully avoided every act which could goad them into open hostility. Macaulay.

To win ower; to gain from a state of hostility; to gain the good will or favor of; to make friendly; to mollify; to propitiate; to appease. The rapacity of his father's administration had excited such universal discontent, that it was found expedient to conciliate the nation. Hallam.

Opposition; resistance; hostility. [Obs.] Here have we war for war, and blood for blood, Controlment for controlment. Shak.

sed. [Obs.] Sin can have no tenure by law at all, but is rather an eternal outlaw, and in hostility with law past all atonement; both diagonal contraries, as much allowing one another as day and night together in one hemisphere. Milton.

Resentment; ill will; anger; displeasure. I drink it to thee in dudgeon and hostility. Sir T. Scott.

A state of opposition; hostility. The friendship of the world is enmity with God. James iv. 4.

Excessive conservatism; hostility to progress. [Political Cant, U.S.]

Hostility to images as objects of worship. [R.]

edy or correction; irremediable; remediless; as, incurable evils. Rancorous and incurable hostility. Burke. They were laboring under a profound, and, as it might have seemed, an almost incurable ignorance. Sir J. Stephen.

The state or quality of being inimical or hostile; hostility; unfriendliness. [R.]

The entrance of an enemy into a country with purposes of hostility; a sudden or desultory incursion or invasion; raid; encroachment. The loss of Shrewsbury exposed all North Wales to the daily inroads of the enemy. Clarendon. With perpetual inroads to alarm, Though inaccessible, his fatal throne. Milton.…

to have a habit of doing so. Hence, figuratively: To show ugly resistance, opposition, or hostility; to spurn. I should kick, being kicked. Shak.

Tending to awaken hostility; hostile; opposing; warring. "Oppugnant forces." I. Taylor. -- n.

The act of following or going after; esp., a following with haste, either for sport or in hostility; chase; prosecution; as, the pursuit of game; the pursuit of an enemy. Clarendon. Weak we are, and can not shun pursuit. Shak.

Ground of objection, dislike, difference, or hostility; cause of dispute or contest; occasion of altercation. Herodias had a quarrel against him, and would have killed him. Mark vi. 19. No man hath any quarrel to me. Shak. He thought he had a good quarrel to attack him. Holinshed.