| / English Dictionary |
HOSTILE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Troops belonging to the enemy's military forces
Example:
the platoon ran into a pack of hostiles
Classified under:
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
Hypernyms ("hostile" is a kind of...):
military personnel; soldiery; troops (soldiers collectively)
Domain category:
armed forces; armed services; military; military machine; war machine (the military forces of a nation)
Antonym:
friendly (troops belonging to or allied with your own military forces)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Unsolicited and resisted by the management of the target company (used of attempts to buy or take control of a business)
Example:
hostile bid
Classified under:
Similar:
aggressive (having or showing determination and energetic pursuit of your ends)
Domain category:
business; business enterprise; commercial enterprise (the activity of providing goods and services involving financial and commercial and industrial aspects)
Derivation:
hostility (violent action that is hostile and usually unprovoked)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Not belonging to your own country's forces or those of an ally
Example:
hostile naval and air forces
Classified under:
Antonym:
friendly (of or belonging to your own country's forces or those of an ally)
Derivation:
hostilities (fighting; acts of overt warfare)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Very unfavorable to life or growth
Example:
the unfriendly environment at high altitudes
Synonyms:
hostile; uncongenial; unfriendly
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
inhospitable (unfavorable to life or growth)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Characterized by enmity or ill will
Example:
hostile actions
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
inimical; unfriendly (not friendly)
opponent; opposing (characterized by active hostility)
ill (indicating hostility or enmity)
head-on (characterized by direct opposition)
dirty (expressing or revealing hostility or dislike)
bitter (proceeding from or exhibiting great hostility or animosity)
at loggerheads (in a dispute or confrontation)
antagonistic; antipathetic; antipathetical (characterized by antagonism or antipathy)
aggressive; belligerent (characteristic of an enemy or one eager to fight)
Also:
unfriendly (not disposed to friendship or friendliness)
aggressive (having or showing determination and energetic pursuit of your ends)
hateful (evoking or deserving hatred)
offensive (for the purpose of attack rather than defense)
unpeaceful (not peaceful)
violent (acting with or marked by or resulting from great force or energy or emotional intensity)
Antonym:
amicable (characterized by friendship and good will)
Derivation:
hostility (the feeling of a hostile person)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Impossible to bring into friendly accord
Example:
hostile factions
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
irreconcilable; unreconcilable (impossible to reconcile)
Context examples:
The exoplanet is thoroughly inhospitable — leftover energy from its formation and a powerful greenhouse effect heat HR8799e to a hostile temperature of roughly 1000 °C.
(GRAVITY instrument breaks new ground in exoplanet imaging, ESO)
Favorably disposed; not antagonistic or hostile.
(Friendly, NCI Thesaurus)
A behavior disorder characterized by a persistent pattern of defiant, disobedient, and hostile behavior towards authority figures, manifested by a frequent loss of temper, arguing, becoming angry or vindictive, or other negativistic behaviors.
(Oppositional Defiant Disorder, NCI Thesaurus)
The new study not only suggests that underground water ice lies under a thin covering over wide areas, it also identifies eight sites where ice is directly accessible, at latitudes with less hostile conditions than at Mars' polar ice caps. Astronauts could essentially just go there with a bucket and a shovel and get all the water they need.
(Steep Slopes on Mars Reveal Structure of Buried Ice, NASA)
The emperor concluded me to be drowned, and that the enemy’s fleet was approaching in a hostile manner: but he was soon eased of his fears; for the channel growing shallower every step I made, I came in a short time within hearing, and holding up the end of the cable, by which the fleet was fastened, I cried in a loud voice, Long live the most puissant king of Lilliput!
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Its size and surface gravity are much larger than Earth’s, and its radiation environment may be hostile, but a distant planet called K2-18b has captured the interest of scientists all over the world.
(Hubble Finds Water Vapor on Habitable-Zone Exoplanet for 1st Time, NASA)
After them came twenty-seven sumpter horses carrying tent-poles, cloth, spare arms, spurs, wedges, cooking kettles, horse-shoes, bags of nails and the hundred other things which experience had shown to be needful in a harried and hostile country.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
White Fang, bristling silently, half-crouching as he rose, sank back and watched the hostile act repeated.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
The time passed, and the two hostile gangs became very quiet.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
I hoped, desperately, that he might commit some hostile act, attempt to strike me or choke me; for in such way only I knew I could be stirred to shoot.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
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