Detest

//dɪˈtɛst// verb

verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To dislike (someone or something) intensely; to loathe. transitive

    "I detest snakes."

  2. 2
    dislike intensely; feel antipathy or aversion towards wordnet
  3. 3
    To witness against; to denounce; to condemn. obsolete, transitive

    "The heresy of Nestorius […] was detested in the Eastern churches."

Synonyms

All synonyms
hateabhorabhorabominatedespisedisgust

Antonyms

All antonyms
love

Example

More examples

"And since she refused to accept it, she had been living in extreme discomfort, exclaiming: "Why should we spend all the capital we are ever likely to have tying ourselves down to a place we detest!""

Etymology

PIE word *tréyes From Middle French detester (French détester), from Latin dētestor (“to imprecate evil while calling the gods to witness", "denounce", "hate intensely”), from dē- + testor (“to testify, bear witness”), from testis (“a witness”); see test, testify. Doublet of detestate.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.