hostile meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

hostile

adj

UK /ˈhɒstaɪl/ · US /ˈhɑstəl/

Etymology Borrowed from Middle French hostile, from Latin hostīlis, from hostis (“enemy”). Displaced Old English fēondlīċ.

Not friendly; appropriate to an enemy; showing the disposition of an enemy; showing ill will and malevolence or a desire to thwart and injure.

2 more examples

Aggressive; antagonistic.

Unwilling.

Being or relating to a hostile takeover.

Microsoft may go hostile in its bid for Yahoo! as soon as Friday, according to a published report.

Synonyms: antagonistic, hateful, adverse, conflicting, contentious, counteracting, hostile, incompatible, inharmonious, inimical, irreconcilable, opposed, repugnant, unbefriending, unfriendly, unharmonious, unpartial
Antonyms: friendly, cooperative, helpful
Derived terms: go hostile, hostile architecture, hostile environment, hostilely, hostileness, hostile possession, hostile vehicle, hostile witness, hostilize, nonhostile, semihostile, unhostile, user-hostile
Related terms: hostility, hostilely, host
Hypernyms: contrary
Hyponyms: combative, embittered, quarrelsome

noun

Etymology Borrowed from Middle French hostile, from Latin hostīlis, from hostis (“enemy”). Displaced Old English fēondlīċ.

The Japanese got their attack in first. About ten minutes after passing the U.S. aircraft, they spotted Hornet (local weather patterns temporarily concealing Enterprise). Things had improved a little bit compared to the Eastern Solomons, and three dozen F4F Wildcats on combat air patrol were vectored onto the oncoming hostiles, but once that initial task was accomplished, things began to collapse back into the cacophony and chaos that was all too familiar to those aboard the Enterprise, meaning that the end result was round about the same[…]2021 February 3, Drachinifel, 10:55 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - Santa Cruz (IJN 2 : 2 USN), archived from the original on 04 Dec 2022: