Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Hatred or mistrust of humankind.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Hatred or dislike of mankind; the habit of distrusting or of taking the worst possible view of human character or motives.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Hatred of, or dislike to, mankind; -- opposed to
philanthropy .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun
Hatred ordislike ofpeople ormankind .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a disposition to dislike and mistrust other people
- noun hatred of mankind
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Having been often ill-served on screen, Thompson's literary misanthropy is distilled in this tale of a psychopath who batters and kills those who love him with utter detachment; no wonder Stanley Kubrick called the book the most believable first-person depiction of the psychopathic mind.
Mark Kermode's DVD round-up Mark Kermode 2010
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I know misanthropy is common, but there’s no reason to just take it all out on smokers. too many steves Says:
Matthew Yglesias » LA Contemplates Further Smoking Restrictions 2009
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From White Man Can’t Jump to Natural Born Killers to The People vs. Larry Flynt, it’s all been a merry wallow in misanthropy, whether of the self-centered or sociopathic variety.
Josh Wolk's Pop Culture Club talks 'Zombieland': Did it have enough brains? | EW.com 2009
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This is where love for animals shades off into slight misanthropy, which is also a highly developed English trait.
England Made Them Hitchens, Christopher 2008
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This might, on the lips of a cynic, serve for a formula of that kind of misanthropy which is not more unamiable than it is unscientific.
Diderot and the Encyclopædists Volume II. John Morley 1880
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It saps their noble ambition, assails their health, lowers their estimate of men and their reverence for women, cherishes an eager and aimless rivalry, weakens true feeling, wipes away the bloom of true modesty, and induces an ennui, a satiety, and a kind of dilettante misanthropy, which is only the more monstrous because it is undoubtedly real.
The Potiphar Papers George William Curtis 1858
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I personally don't want to support or promote a band that espouses intolerant beliefs (beyond a straightforward, fuck-humanity form of misanthropy, which is an equal-opportunity intolerance).
Chicago Reader 2010
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He is aware that his misanthropy is a problem, so he keeps himself to himself as much as possible.
Talking Philosophy 2009
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Nor do I find in them the "misanthropy" which he defines at some length.
A Study of Hawthorne George Parsons Lathrop 1874
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Although, from a kind of misanthropy, he wore clothes quite rusty, there was in his whole appearance that which commanded respect.
Mysteries of Paris — Volume 02 Eug��ne Sue 1830
tankexmortis commented on the word misanthropy
Something about gross misanthropy has appealed to me since I was very small.
January 17, 2007
bilby commented on the word misanthropy
You probably listed schadenfreude too, tankexmortis?
July 16, 2008
missanthropist commented on the word misanthropy
Or rawther, a singular feminine being bent upon arduous and awkward study of humankind?
July 16, 2008