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Spite vs Blame - What's the difference?

spite | blame |

As verbs the difference between spite and blame

is that spite is to treat maliciously; to try to injure or thwart while blame is .

As a noun spite

is ill will or hatred toward another, accompanied with the disposition to irritate, annoy, or thwart; a desire to vex or injure; petty malice; grudge; rancor.

As a preposition spite

is notwithstanding; despite.

spite

English

Etymology 1

From a shortening of (etyl) despit, from (etyl) despit (whence despite). Compare also Dutch spijt.

Noun

(en-noun)
  • Ill will or hatred toward another, accompanied with the disposition to irritate, annoy, or thwart; a desire to vex or injure; petty malice; grudge; rancor.
    • He was so filled with spite for his ex-wife, he could not hold down a job.
    They did it just for spite .
  • * Shakespeare
    • This is the deadly spite that angers.
  • (obsolete) Vexation; chagrin; mortification.
    • "The time is out of joint: O cursed spite." Shakespeare, Hamlet

    Verb

    (spit)
  • To treat maliciously; to try to injure or thwart.
    • She soon married again, to spite her ex-husband.
  • (obsolete) To be angry at; to hate.
    • The Danes, then pagans, spited places of religion. — Fuller.
  • To fill with spite; to offend; to vex.
    • Darius, spited at the Magi, endeavoured to abolish not only their learning, but their language. — Sir. W. Temple.
    Related terms
    * spiteful * in spite of * despite

    See also

    * malignant * malicious

    Etymology 2

    Preposition

    (English prepositions)
  • Notwithstanding; despite.

    • Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * ----

    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