Hos*til"i*ty (?), n.; pl. Hostilities (#). [L. hostilitas: cf. F. hostilit'e.]

1.

State of being hostile; public or private enemy; unfriendliness; animosity.

Hostility being thus suspended with France. Hayward.

2.

An act of an open enemy; a hostile deed; especially in the plural, acts of warfare; attacks of an enemy.

We have showed ourselves generous adversaries . . . and have carried on even our hostilities with humanity. Atterbury.

He who proceeds to wanton hostility, often provokes an enemy where he might have a friend. Crabb.

Syn. -- Animosity; enmity; opposition; violence; aggression; contention; warfare.

 

© Webster 1913.