ill nature

American  

noun

1. unkindly or unpleasant disposition.

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Etymology

Origin of ill nature

First recorded in 1685–95

Example Sentences

This wrestling has cost the Castigator ill nature, megalomania, nervous breakdowns and the creatures of his forced moods are far less credible, as contemporary humanity, than Hogarth's Gin Alleyites, Swift's Anglo-Lilliputs or even Dante's infernals.

From Time Magazine Archive

But John Ball was used to his father's ill nature, and never answered it.

From Miss Mackenzie by Trollope, Anthony

The morose are bitterly dissatisfied with the world in general, and disposed to vent their ill nature upon others.

From English Synonyms and Antonyms With Notes on the Correct Use of Prepositions by Fernald, James Champlin

And it is he, not they, who is justly hailed as the founder of that benign school of comic art which gives us humor without coarseness, and satire without ill nature.

From Caricature and Other Comic Art in all Times and many Lands. by Parton, James

Be slow, therefore, to impute bad marks to injustice, or ill nature.

From In the School-Room Chapters in the Philosophy of Education by Hart, John S. (John Seely)