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Spite vs Rage - What's the difference?

spite | rage |

In obsolete terms the difference between spite and rage

is that spite is vexation; chagrin; mortification while rage is to enrage.

As nouns the difference between spite and rage

is that 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 while rage is violent uncontrolled anger.

As verbs the difference between spite and rage

is that spite is to treat maliciously; to try to injure or thwart while rage is to act or speak in heightened anger.

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

    * ----

    rage

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Violent uncontrolled anger.
  • *
  • *:They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. Otherwise his pelt would not have been so perfect. And why else was he put away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had too.
  • A current fashion or fad.
  • :
  • (lb) Any vehement passion.
  • *(Francis Bacon) (1561-1626)
  • *:in great rage of pain
  • * (1800-1859)
  • *:He appeased the rage of hunger with some scraps of broken meat.
  • *(Nathaniel Hawthorne) (1804-1864)
  • *:convulsed with a rage of grief

    • Synonyms

    * fury * ire

    Derived terms

    * pavement rage * road rage * roid rage * trolley rage

    Verb

    (rag)
  • (label) To act or speak in heightened anger.
  • (label) To move with great violence, as a storm etc.
  • * (John Milton) (1608-1674)
    • The madding wheels / Of brazen chariots raged ; dire was the noise.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1892, author=(James Yoxall)
    • , chapter=5, title= The Lonely Pyramid , passage=The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom.
  • * 1922 , (Virginia Woolf), (w, Jacob's Room) Chapter 1
    • "The two women murmured over the spirit-lamp, plotting the eternal conspiracy of hush and clean bottles while the wind raged and gave a sudden wrench at the cheap fastenings.
  • * 2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/nyregion/new-jersey-continues-to-cope-with-hurricane-sandy.html?hp]," New York Times (retrieved 31 October 2012):
    • Though the storm raged up the East Coast, it has become increasingly apparent that New Jersey took the brunt of it.
  • *
  • (label) To enrage.
    • (Shakespeare)

    Anagrams

    * ----