detest

From Middle French detester, from Latin detestari (“to imprecate evil while calling the gods to witness", "denounce", "hate intensely”), from de- + testari (“to testify, bear witness”), from testis (“a witness”); see test, testify.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪˈtɛst/

• Audio (US)

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detest (third-person singular simple present detests, present participle detesting, simple past and past participle detested)

1. (transitive) To dislike intensely; to loathe.

   I detest snakes.

   • Alexander Pope

     Who dares think one thing, and another tell, / My heart detests him as the gates of hell.

2. (transitive, obsolete) To witness against; to denounce; to condemn.
   • Fuller

     The heresy of Nestorius […] was detested in the Eastern churches.

   • Bale

     God hath detested them with his own mouth.

• This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing). See Appendix:English catenative verbs

• See also Thesaurus:hate

• detestable
• detestation

• abhor
• despise
• disdain
• dislike
• hate
• loathe

• detest in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• detest in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

• dettes, setted, tested