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ill nature

American  

noun

  1. unkindly or unpleasant disposition.


Etymology

Origin of ill nature

First recorded in 1685–95

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 New York Herald wrote that Johnson’s remarks “smell of chagrin, distrust, ill nature, and bad blood.”

From Time

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 Project Gutenberg

But the woman seemed to be giving vent to her own ill nature in an evidently customary and certainly vivid way.

From Project Gutenberg

Low comedy especially requires, on the writer's part, much of conversation with the vulgar, and much of ill nature in the observation of their follies.

From Project Gutenberg

Indeed they were so pulled to pieces all round, by the sharp talons of ill nature, that they were not left too many virtues to plume themselves with.

From Project Gutenberg