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detest Definition

de·test (dē test, di-)

transitive verb

to dislike intensely; hate; abhor

Etymology: Fr détester < L detestari, to curse by calling the gods to witness, execrate, detest < de-, down + testari, to witness < testis, a witness: see testify

detest Related Forms
de·tester noun
detest Synonyms

detest

v.

hate, abhor, loathe, despise; see hate 1. See syn. study at hate.

detest Usage Examples

Object

  • war: It has to be understood that there are communities which naturally detest war but still fear for their lives and safety.
  • man: If I didn't so personally detest the man, I might call him my one triumph.
  • contact: He reacts badly to orders when he is agitated and he detests physical contact.
  • people: For those who detest such people being allowed on screen, just being themselves, here's an awkward question.
  • everything: They will still attack us because they detest everything we have and stand for and the freedoms we have.
  • way: I detest that new way of having some songs on there which you cannot get anywhere else!

Subject

  • majority: Unfortunately a lot of other people decide to do the same and you end up with an MP who is detested by the majority.

Adjective complement

  • most: What I detest most about them is that they poisoned the good name of modernism for the entire century.

Modifying Another Word

  • utterly: He had turned from such things and utterly detested them.
  • absolutely: Now I hate new music from the 80's, I absolutely detest it.
  • thoroughly: I thoroughly detest Mark E. Smith, for example - a nasty phony, in my opinion.
  • really: We were now in the throes of winter, a time I really detested at sea.
  • always: I've always detested this band of smug mature students.
  • so: He probably actually was one, otherwise he would not have been so detested by mainstream religion of his time.

Used with why or when

  • what: But it arrived at exactly the right moment, especially for those who claimed to detest what they thought it stood for.

Present participle complement

  • have: I had always detested having to stand up and make speeches in public.

Preposition: by

  • majority: Unfortunately a lot of other people decide to do the same and you end up with an MP who is detested by the majority.
detest Quotes

All men hate the wretched; how, then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurnme, thycreature, towhomthou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us. 782

—Shelley, Mary Godwin

Browse dictionary entries near detest

  1. detersive
  2. deterring
  3. deterrent
  4. deterrence
  5. deterministic
  6. determinism
  7. determining
  8. determiner
  9. determined
  10. determine
  1. detestable
  2. detestation
  3. dethatch
  4. dethrone
  5. detinue
  6. detonate
  7. detonation
  8. detonator
  9. detour
  10. detox