noun
adjective
Related Words
See abuse.
Other Word Forms
- invectively adverb
- invectiveness noun
- uninvective adjective
Etymology
Origin of invective
1400–50; late Middle English < Late Latin invectīvus abusive, equivalent to Latin invect ( us ) (past participle of invehī to attack with words, inveigh ) + -īvus -ive
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The book’s finest pieces wrangle, in elegant prose, with humanity’s contradictions; the weaker ones indulge in name-dropping, footnotes and op-ed invective.
From Los Angeles Times
The directive from the club is that Rodgers resigned, but reading Desmond's invective, line by line, you have to wonder why did he allow it to get this far down the line?
From BBC
Perched in his art-filled château in the south of France, the British expatriate spent years hurling invectives at, falling out with or blatantly undermining an astonishing number of people.
But it’s fair to say that Reagan never indulged in outright name-calling or hateful invective, stressed his desire for negotiation over confrontation and left the nuclear saber-rattling to subordinates.
From Salon
Do’s willingness to involve his family in his scheme pointed to his “moral indifference,” prosecutors said, while his campaign of invective against the press aggravated his culpability.
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
