Definitions

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

  • noun A feud between two families that arises from the injury or killing of the member of one family by a member of the other family, leading to long-lasting animosity and retaliatory acts of revenge.
  • noun A series of acts attacking or attempting to injure another.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A condition of private war in which the nearest of kin execute vengeance on the slayer of a relative; a blood-feud

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

  • noun A blood feud; private revenge for the murder of a kinsman.
  • noun Any feud or contention that is bitter and prolonged; however, the deep enmity may be held by only one party to the dispute.

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

  • noun A bitter, destructive feud, normally between two families, clans, or factions, in which each injury or slaying is revenged: a blood feud.

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

  • noun a feud in which members of the opposing parties murder each other

Etymologies

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

[Italian, from Latin vindicta, revenge; see vindictive.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Italian vendetta.

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Examples

Comments

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  • "It seemed to me that he expressed his regret for having passed ten years in vendetta with his good neighbor Orlandi, and he offered him the white hen which he carried as reparation."

    The Corsican Brothers by Alexandre Dumas

    December 3, 2007