revile
Americanverb (used with object)
-
reviles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
reviled,
past participle, past
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reviling
present participle
verb (used without object)
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reviles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
reviled,
past participle, past
-
reviling
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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revilesimple
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revilessimple
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have reviledperfect
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has reviledperfect
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am revilingprogressive
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are revilingprogressive
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is revilingprogressive
-
have been revilingperfect progressive
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has been revilingperfect progressive
Past
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reviledsimple
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had reviledperfect
-
was revilingprogressive
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were revilingprogressive
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had been revilingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of revile
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English revilen, from Middle French reviler; see re-, vile
Explanation
If something is reviled, you alone don’t dislike it; a whole community of like-minded souls has to hate its guts. For instance, spam is widely reviled. (The junk e-mails, not the potted meat. Somebody out there really does like that potted meat.) If you’re the only one who hates, say, your math teacher, it’s not fair to say that person is reviled. If she is majestically unpopular with the entire senior class and is routinely the butt of geometry-themed insults, well then sadly, this instructor is indeed reviled. Generally, when someone or something is reviled, much of the poison aimed is in print, such as critical reviews or insulting editorials.
Vocabulary lists containing revile
100 SAT words Beginning with "R"
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Heart of Darkness
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The Bluest Eye
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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.
See Examples For:
But amid the ruins near the turquoise waters of the Caribbean coast, the effort is colliding with ordinary Venezuelans who revile their government.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
Published this month by the University of Georgia Press, Thurmond’s book makes a case that Oglethorpe evolved to revile slavery and, unlike most white Europeans of his time, saw the humanity in enslaved Africans.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 16, 2024
It is, ad nauseam, a brothers-in-arms story, whose likable soldiers revile the self-important brass but are devoted to “the kid in the ditch” — the common soldier in harm’s way.
From New York Times ● Jul. 26, 2023
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely,
From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2023
“No, no. We revile Anastasia. We like Antonia, the other blonde,” Mom explained.
From "The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green
But Yank’s sense of dignity proves as fragile as a candle flame; it’s instantly snuffed out when Mildred appears and reviles him.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, a fellow New York Republican who reviles Santos, introduced a bill this year aimed at foreclosing just that possibility.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 2, 2023
It’s human nature to bristle at the side that reviles you.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 17, 2021
To his credit, Wolff is astute and a little shamefaced when analysing the complicity between Trump and the journalists whom he officially reviles.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 1, 2020
"He has no coin and the only knight who follows him reviles him as less than a snake. The Dothraki make mock of his weakness. He will never take us home."
From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin
The song uses samples from two different speeches: toward the end, from Pedro Albizu Campos, but ironically the opening voice belongs to Carlos Romero Barceló, a pro-statehood governor reviled in pro-independence circles on the island.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 26, 2026
A man called Hitler Mussolini has been elected as a mayor in Peru despite carrying two of the most reviled names in history.
From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2026
Along the way, Pike was reviled for the crime she committed.
From Slate ● Oct. 1, 2026
Philips is one of India's best-known - and most polarising - doctors online: admired by supporters as a fearless champion of evidence-based medicine, reviled by critics as an attention-seeking provocateur.
From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2026
Everywhere I went in Tanganyika my skin color was automatically accepted rather than instantly reviled.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
While the original XFL made a show of reviling the stodgy NFL, this iteration embraces its status as an aspirant upstart.
From Slate ● Feb. 10, 2020
Which is to say that he can never escape that St. Louis comic or that reviling mother or Aunt Fritzi or “Haim Afen Range” or, for that matter, Joel Katz.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 3, 2016
“But he is partly responsible for a strange bifurcation in our minds,” revering agriculture and reviling industrialism, even though “farming has done more extensive damage to wildlife habitat than all the factories ever built.”
From New York Times ● Sep. 12, 2013
Their purpose in reviling Grass as a Nazi and anti-Semite is precisely to silence anyone who might even consider following his lead.
From Salon ● Jun. 13, 2012
I followed her, meekly enough; she scolding and reviling, and petting me all the way as if I had been a lap-dog out of favor.
From Wives and Widows; or The Broken Life by Ann S. (Ann Sophia) Stephens
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
