dislike
Americanverb (used with object)
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dislikes,
present (3rd person singular)
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disliked,
past participle, past
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disliking
present participle
noun
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dislikes
plural
verb
noun
Synonym Usage
Dislike, disgust, distaste, repugnance imply antipathy toward something. Dislike is a general word, sometimes connoting an inherent or permanent feeling of antipathy for something: to have a dislike for crowds. Disgust connotes a feeling of loathing for what is offensive to the feelings and sensibilities: He felt disgust at seeing such ostentation. Distaste implies a more or less settled dislike: to have distaste for spicy foods, for hard work. Repugnance is a strong feeling of aversion for, and antagonism toward, something: to feel repugnance for (or toward ) low criminals.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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predislikenoun
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self-dislikenoun
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dislikableadjective
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dislikeableadjective
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self-dislikedadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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dislikesimple
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dislikessimple
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have dislikedperfect
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has dislikedperfect
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am dislikingprogressive
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are dislikingprogressive
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is dislikingprogressive
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have been dislikingperfect progressive
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has been dislikingperfect progressive
Past
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dislikedsimple
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had dislikedperfect
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was dislikingprogressive
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were dislikingprogressive
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had been dislikingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of dislike
Explanation
Put simply, to dislike can be used as a transitive verb that means to "not like." Maybe you dislike spinach. But it can also be a noun, as in "You seem to have developed quite a dislike for spinach." English being a language of trial-and-error, the word dislike came about in the mid-16th Century, as modern English was still in its infancy. At that time, some words were tried and discarded, to be replaced with others that stuck. That was the case with dislike, which developed after the word "mislike" was dropped as the opposite of "like." Speaking of prefixes, don't confuse the word dislike with "unlike," which means that something is different from something else.
Vocabulary lists containing dislike
Power Prefix: dis-
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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:
If you dislike or even detest this film, I don’t seek to negate your feelings.
From Salon ● Oct. 2, 2026
As a result, they may welcome occasions when their originalist analysis leads to results they dislike.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
He appears to sincerely dislike the idea that his candidacy should be a story about his identity at all.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
For a fighter who has never hidden her dislike of media interviews, there was something striking about the confidence with which she walked around the ring, microphone in hand, soaking up the final moments.
From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2026
The not-knowing made me dislike secrets, and then I remembered I had one of my own.
From "P.S. Be Eleven" by Rita Williams-Garcia
Cage solved my next problem by insisting that the way to discover new things is to overcome our dependence on our likes and dislikes, those supposed pillars of criticism.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
“Whether or not someone dislikes rankings, one has to acknowledge that there are huge differences in how universities educate students,” he said.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 22, 2026
"The challenge goes way beyond just putting AI into a robot," said Lian Jye Su from technology research group Omdia, who dislikes the term "physical AI" for downplaying the complexity of the hardware solutions needed.
From Barron's ● Aug. 19, 2026
Carney has said that it is "no secret" Trump dislikes the USMCA.
From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026
He picks his friends based on whether he likes or dislikes the colors of their names.
From "A Mango-Shaped Space" by Wendy Mass
A disliked corner of the stock market really isn’t as bad as it seems, according to StoneX.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026
The 30-year-old told AFP in Venice she disliked fame and celebrity, but Gyllenhaal tipped her for even greater success.
From Barron's ● Sep. 12, 2026
For some, Brook became the poster boy of everything they disliked about the Bazball era, both for what happened off the field and for the way he plays the game on it.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
Many of the offers centered on capitalizing on their family names and pigeonholing them into commercial pop or hip-hop, which they tried and ultimately disliked.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026
Ifemelu disliked the question; she would have disliked it even if she did not feel, in addition to her depressed uncertainty, the beginning of a headache.
From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
He describes a kind of grief and irritation as Diana becomes public property and then royal property, which irks him even more, disliking the "nonsense of fawning" around the monarchy.
From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026
When the bubble is big enough, it shifts the behavior of the market as a whole from disliking capital expenditure, and hating speculative capital spending in particular, to loving it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2025
Some readers confessed to never having seen the film whose soundtrack they love; others even reported disliking it.
From New York Times ● May 26, 2024
“This idea of disliking your boss and hating your job is as old as time,” Anicich said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 4, 2024
Kendra smeared sunblock across her arms, disliking the greasy feel of the lotion against her skin.
From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull
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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.
