DETEST

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does detest mean? 

• DETEST (verb)
  The verb DETEST has 1 sense:

1. dislike intensely; feel antipathy or aversion towards

  Familiarity information: DETEST used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DETEST (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they detest    ... he / she / it detests   
Past simple: detested   
Past participle: detested   
-ing form: detesting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Dislike intensely; feel antipathy or aversion towards

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

detest; hate

Context example:

She detests politicians

Hypernyms (to "detest" is one way to...):

dislike (have or feel a dislike or distaste for)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "detest"):

abhor; abominate; execrate; loathe (find repugnant)

contemn; despise; disdain; scorn (look down on with disdain)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence examples:

Sam cannot detest Sue
Sam and Sue detest the movie

Derivation:

detestation (hate coupled with disgust)

 Context examples 

You know how I detest it, unless I am particularly acquainted with my partner.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Unfortunately, Mr. Davis particularly detested the odor of the fashionable pickle, and disgust added to his wrath.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

“I detest this mongrel time, neither day nor night. How late you are! Where have you been?”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But now, alas, how welcome would have been the feel of their presence, the frou-frou and swish-swish of their skirts which I had so cordially detested!

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Alas! Why did they preserve so miserable and detested a life?

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

It seemed to refine him, to remove from him much of the dross of flesh and the too animal-like vigor that lured her while she detested it.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Where people are really attached, poverty itself is wealth; grandeur I detest: I would not settle in London for the universe.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

He had no pleasure at Norland; he detested being in town; but either to Norland or London, he must go.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

There is something in the sound of Mr. Edmund Bertram so formal, so pitiful, so younger-brother-like, that I detest it.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

That's why I do it. I detest rude, unladylike girls!

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)