Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To dislike (someone or something) greatly; abhor.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To be hateful or loathed; excite nausea, disgust, or abhorrence.
  • To feel nausea, disgust, or abhorrence.
  • To dislike greatly; hate; abhor.
  • To cause to dislike or avoid; disgust.
  • To feel disgust at; especially, to have an extreme aversion to, as food or drink.
  • Synonyms Hate, Abhor, Detest, etc. See hate.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb obsolete To feel disgust or nausea.
  • transitive verb To feel extreme disgust at, or aversion for.
  • transitive verb To dislike greatly; to abhor; to hate; to detest.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To hate, detest, revile.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb find repugnant

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English lothen, from Old English lāthian.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English lothe, from Old English lāþian. Cognate with Old Norse leiðask ( > Danish ledes, Icelandic leiðast ) (all reflexive), German leiden.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word loathe.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Today I was suddenly struck with the fear that I may have sometime in the past misspelt this word sans e.

    October 14, 2010

  • I frequently see or hear loathe where loth is meant.

    October 15, 2010