spite

Word family

spite1 /spaɪt/ W3 noun [uncountableU]

1 in spite of something ALTHOUGHwithout being affected or prevented by something 虽然；不顾；尽管…（仍…） SYN despite

We went out in spite of the rain.

尽管下着雨，我们还是出去了。

Kelly loved her husband in spite of the fact that he drank too much.

虽然丈夫酗酒，凯莉仍然爱着他。

Examples from the Corpus

in spite of the fact that• He refuses to marry her, in spite of the fact that he gave her a legal document stating his intention.• The payments were awarded to him in spite of the fact that he participated in the negotiation of the deal with VastNed.

2 CRUELa feeling of wanting to hurt or upset people, for example because you are jealous or think you have been unfairly treated 恶意；怨恨；坏心眼

out of spite (=because of spite) 出于恶意

She broke it just out of spite.

她就是出于恶意把它打破的。

pure/sheer spite (=spite and nothing else) 纯属恶意

3 in spite of yourself ALTHOUGHif you do something in spite of yourself, you do it although you did not expect or intend to do it 不由自主地，身不由己地

The picture made her laugh in spite of herself.

这幅画让她忍俊不禁。

Examples from the Corpus

in spite of yourself• Almost in spite of himself, he did well at Latin.• I feel a stab of envy in spite of myself.• The picture made her laugh in spite of herself.• Angie responds in spite of herself when Cain flirts with her.• I went along to my session, and I was shaking in spite of myself.• I hurried home, my heart pounding and my hands trembling in spite of myself-I could not believe it.

Examples from the Corpus

spite• Agelong Hindu cruelty to his unhappy brethren filled Ambedkar with anger and spite.• Gerald's feelings of injustice turned to bitterness and spite.• Biblical movies usually wind up epic in scope in spite of every effort to keep them small.• In spite of his other fencing skills, Richie had never quite mastered the post hammer.• In spite of the furor the codicil caused, life went on much as before.• In spite of the vote for Clinton in 1992, it is that second personality that has been in the ascendant recently.• Sometimes the pirates would sink a boat out of spite for wasting their time.• She quit college and worked as a waitress out of spite towards her parents.• Ignore what Martin says. It's pure spite.• This is not to say that spite, malice or dishonesty may not exist; they clearly can.

pure/sheer spite• Or were they keeping me here out of sheer spite?• They wanted to peck you all over, out of sheer spite.

spite2 verb [transitiveT only in infinitive]

UPSETto deliberately annoy or upset someone 故意与〔某人〕作对，恶意对待

The neighbours throw things over the garden wall just to spite us.

邻居把东西扔过花园围墙，故意和我们作对。

→ cut off your nose to spite your face at cut

Examples from the Corpus

spite• Now he's asking to keep the dog just to spite his ex-wife.• Pretty belonged in this country to spite La Bruja.• To spite me, Edusha talked of him continually.• We can be cutting off our noses to spite our faces if dealers aren't making enough money to carry on.• He lives just to get back in office to spite the people.

just to spite• You know what he's like ... I wouldn't put it past him to say yes just to spite me.• Disappointed protesters complained that the government had reformed the tax just to spite them.

Origin spite1

(1200-1300) despite (noun) ((13-20 centuries)); → DESPITE

spite1 nounspite2 verb

Chinese

Corpus