execrate

American  

[ek-si-krayt] / ˈɛk sɪˌkreɪt /

verb (used with object)

• execrates,
  present (3rd person singular)
• execrated,
  past participle,  past
• execrating
  present participle

1. to detest utterly; abhor; abominate.

2. to curse; imprecate evil upon; damn; denounce.

   He execrated all who opposed him.

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verb (used without object)

• execrates,
  present (3rd person singular)
• execrated,
  past participle,  past
• execrating
  present participle

1. to utter curses.

execrate British  

/ ˈɛksɪˌkreɪt /

verb

1. (tr) to loathe; detest; abhor

2. (tr) to profess great abhorrence for; denounce; deplore

3. to curse (a person or thing); damn

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• execration
  noun
• execrator
  noun
• execrative
  adjective
• unexecrated
  adjective
• execratively
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Participles

• execrating
  present
• execrated
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• execrate
  simple
• execrates
  simple
• have execrated
  perfect
• has execrated
  perfect
• am execrating
  progressive
• are execrating
  progressive
• is execrating
  progressive
• have been execrating
  perfect progressive
• has been execrating
  perfect progressive

Past

• execrated
  simple
• had execrated
  perfect
• was execrating
  progressive
• were execrating
  progressive
• had been execrating
  perfect progressive

Future

• will execrate
  simple
• will have execrated
  perfect
• will be execrating
  progressive
• will have been execrating
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of execrate

1555–65; < Latin ex ( s ) ecrātus (past participle of ex ( s ) ecrārī to curse), equivalent to ex- ex- ¹ + secr- (combining form of sacrāre to consecrate; see sacrament) + -ātus -ate ¹

Explanation

Just when you thought you knew every word in the book for hate, here's a new one: execrate. The word means to despise or also to curse. Broken down to its Latin root, the word execrate means the opposite of being sacred or devoted to. When you execrate something, you are cursing it instead of making it holy. The word is not used all that often. If you say to someone, "I execrate you!" they might think you're casting an evil spell on them. Which in a way, by cursing them, you are.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

execrate execrates execrated execrating

The citizen of Oceania is not allowed to know anything of the tenets of the other two philosophies, but he is taught to execrate them as barbarous outrages upon morality and common sense.

From "1984" by George Orwell

Dannecker, like every patronized artist I ever met with, would execrate patronage if he dared.

From Visits and Sketches at Home and Abroad with Tales and Miscellanies Now First Collected Vol. I (of 3) by Mrs. (Anna) Jameson

If in the duel, she was to prove victorious, with a bitterness as of gall would he execrate this woman!

From The Maid of Honour, Volume 2 (of 3) A Tale of the Dark Days of France by Lewis Wingfield

We but smile at the one, we would learn to execrate the other.

From Leading Articles on Various Subjects by John Davidson

Then come their dreary consolations, and present themselves before me; and I cast them out, and execrate them.

From Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and Travels, Vol. I (of 2) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

He welcomes any opportunity for war, but execrates militarism.

From The Promise of American Life by Herbert David Croly

He execrates Racine, and treats him as a sorry sort of man.

From Balzac by Frederick Lawton

Beatrice Patrick Campbell is especially an artist, and her talent is that of charm and thought: she execrates beaten paths; she wants to create, and she creates.

From My Double Life The Memoirs of Sarah Bernhardt by Sarah Bernhardt

How one loves Canova the man, and how one execrates Canova the artist!

From Wisdom, Wit, and Pathos of Ouida Selected from the Works of Ouida by Ouida

His very style foams, rages, prays, entreats, adjures, weeps, screams, warns, and execrates.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 01, No. 03, January, 1858 by Various

This man they’d execrated and denounced had shocked the world—not just by being his shocking self but by winning; nobody expected him to win!—and yet from them this evoked no reaction.

From The New Yorker ● Dec. 7, 2016

And yet, the "mouse" managed to make himself an execrated writer in Russia.

From Time Magazine Archive

You either execrated them and were on the side of history, or enjoyed them and missed the bus.

From Time Magazine Archive

Other Catholic periodicals of less importance gently rebuked or soundly execrated her.

From Time Magazine Archive

She no longer remembered how, within the hour, she had execrated this man who now stood before her.

From The Shooting of Dan McGrew, A Novel Based on the Famous Poem of Robert Service by Marvin Hill Dana

Although some blamed the young officer for his rashness, and others held Lord Raglan directly responsible for his loss, all agreed in execrating the vindictive cruelty of the uncompromising foe.

From The Thin Red Line; and Blue Blood by Arthur Griffiths

Instead of execrating Mr. Holt, I admire him most profoundly.

From The Sword of Damocles A Story of New York Life by Anna Katharine Green

Presently he went, stumbling and execrating, close past the spot where Leslie remained concealed, and the latter at once rose to his feet and followed him noiselessly, at a distance of some fifteen paces.

From Dick Leslie's Luck A Story of Shipwreck and Adventure by Harold Piffard

Thus the crowd of notables packed into the anterooms waited at the door, fuming and execrating, yet not departing.

From The Mississippi Bubble by Emerson Hough

And with this poor assurance the dwarf had been obliged to content himself—not merrily, 'tis true, but with much inward disquietude, secretly execrating his monarch for this revival of ancient and barbarous practices.

From Under the Rose by Frederic Stewart Isham