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Blame vs Loath - What's the difference?

blame | loath |

As a verb blame

is .

As an adjective loath is

unwilling, reluctant; averse, disinclined.

blame

English

Etymology 1

(etyl), from (etyl)

Noun

(-)
  • Censure.
    • Blame came from all directions.
  • Culpability for something negative or undesirable.
    • The blame for starting the fire lies with the arsonist.
  • Responsibility for something meriting censure.
    • They accepted the blame , but it was an accident.
    Derived terms
    * put the blame on
    See also
    * fault

    Etymology 2

    (etyl), from (etyl) blasmer, from . Compare (blaspheme)

    Verb

    (blam)
  • To censure (someone or something); to criticize.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , III.ii:
    • though my loue be not so lewdly bent, / As those ye blame , yet may it nought appease / My raging smart [...].
  • *
    • These peculiarities of Dorothea's character caused Mr. Brooke to be all the more blamed in neighboring families for not securing some middle-aged lady as guide and companion to his nieces.
  • * 1919 , (Saki), ‘The Oversight’, The Toys of Peace :
    • That was the year that Sir Richard was writing his volume on Domestic Life in Tartary . The critics all blamed it for a lack of concentration.
  • * 2006 , Clive James, North Face of Soho , Picador 2007, p. 106:
    • I covered the serious programmes too, and indeed, right from the start, I spent more time praising than blaming .
  • (obsolete) To bring into disrepute.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , II.viii:
    • For knighthoods loue, do not so foule a deed, / Ne blame your honour with so shamefull vaunt / Of vile reuenge.
  • To assert or consider that someone is the cause of something negative; to place blame, to attribute responsibility (for something negative or for doing something negative).
    • The arsonist was blamed for the fire.
    Synonyms
    * reproach, take to task, upbraid * (consider that someone is the cause of something negative) hold to account
    Derived terms
    * blamer

    Anagrams

    * English reporting verbs

    loath

    English

    Alternative forms

    * loth (mostly UK)

    Adjective

    (er)
  • unwilling, reluctant; averse, disinclined
    • I was loath to return to the office without the Henderson file.
  • * 1911 , (Jack London), The Whale Tooth
  • *:The frizzle-headed man-eaters were loath to leave their fleshpots so long as the harvest of human carcases was plentiful. Sometimes, when the harvest was too plentiful, they imposed on the missionaries by letting the word slip out that on such a day there would be a killing and a barbecue.
  • (obsolete) hostile, angry, loathsome, unpleasant

    • Usage notes

    * Often confused in meaning and pronunciation with loathe, a related transitive verb. * This spelling is about four times as common as "loth" in the UK and fifty times as common in the US.

    Synonyms

    * unwilling, reluctant, averse, disinclined

    Related terms

    * loathe

    Anagrams

    *