hostile - Wiktionary, the free dictionary


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

hostile (comparative more hostile, superlative most hostile)

  1. Not friendly; appropriate to an enemy; showing the disposition of an enemy; showing ill will and malevolence or a desire to thwart and injure.
    Synonyms: inimical, unfriendly
    a hostile force

    hostile intentions

    a hostile country

    hostile to a sudden change

  2. Aggressive; antagonistic.
  3. Unwilling.
  4. (not comparable) 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.

belonging or appropriate to an enemy

antagonistic

hostile (plural hostiles)

  1. (chiefly in the plural) An enemy.

    • 2021 February 3, Drachinifel, 10:55 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - Santa Cruz (IJN 2 : 2 USN)‎[1], archived from the original on 4 December 2022:

      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 […]

an enemy

Inherited from Middle French hostile, hostif (this form with a change of suffix), borrowed from Latin hostilis.

hostile (plural hostiles)

  1. hostile
  2. unfriendly

hostīle

  1. nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular of hostīlis