spite.

1. A desire to hurt or annoy someone, often from bitterness or petty resentment.

2. To deliberately hurt or annoy someone out of resentment.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• out of spite
• petty spite

On the page

He withheld the message out of spite rather than caution.

Usage notes

Primary category: psychology / human behavior. Forms: Usually uncountable; no ordinary plural in this sense. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Commonness: moderately common. Third-person singular: spites.