inimical
Americanadjective
-
adverse in tendency or effect; unfavorable; harmful.
a climate inimical to health.
- Synonyms:
- noxious
-
a cold, inimical gaze.
- Synonyms:
- antagonistic
- Antonyms:
- friendly
adjective
-
adverse or unfavourable
-
not friendly; hostile
Related Words
See hostile.
Other Word Forms
- inimicality noun
- inimically adverb
- inimicalness noun
- uninimical adjective
- uninimically adverb
Etymology
Origin of inimical
First recorded in 1635–45; from Latin inimīc(us) “unfriendly, hostile” ( enemy ) + -al 1
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.
It recently backed a Cabinet viewed as inimical to its interests in a bid to unlock reconstruction funds.
From Los Angeles Times
More broadly, a massive and growing media marketing complex culturally "manufactures" modern high-consumption lifestyles, which are inimical to the environment and to human health and well-being.
From Salon
Paradoxically, this sort of love for an animal can be inimical to its welfare.
From Los Angeles Times
In 2015, Beijing’s population planners finally concluded that the consequences of their awful “one child policy” were inimical to state interests.
From Washington Post
Finally, much of her poetry made meticulous use of rhyme, which by the mid-20th century was disdained by the poetic establishment as inimical to the making of serious art.
From New York Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
