Crossword Dictionary
HATEFUL
hateful, mean - a
characterized by malice; "a hateful thing to do"; "in a mean mood"
Synoynms
bad [slang], bitchy, catty, cruel, despiteful, malevolent, malicious, malign, malignant, mean, nasty, spiteful, vicious, virulent
Examples
To be quit of his hateful presence he gave him a mili tary command.
The excise, which was a favourite resource of Whig financiers, he had designated as a hateful tax.
They often become angry, resistant and sometimes downright hateful.
Etymology
mid-14c., "full of hate;" late 14c., "exciting hate;" from hate (n.) + -ful. Related: Hatefully; hatefulness.
hate (n.)
Old English hete "hatred, spite, envy, malice, hostility," from Proto-Germanic *hatis- (source also of Old Norse hattr, Old Frisian hat, Dutch haat, Old High German has, German Hass, Gothic hatis; see hate (v.)). Altered in Middle English to conform with the verb.
-ful
word-forming element attached to nouns (and in modern English to verb stems) and meaning "full of, having, characterized by," also "amount or volume contained" (handful, bellyful); from Old English -full, -ful, which is full (adj.) become a suffix by being coalesced with a preceding noun, but originally a separate word. Cognate with German -voll, Old Norse -fullr, Danish -fuld. Most English -ful adjectives at one time or another had both passive ("full of x") and active ("causing x; full of occasion for x") senses.