despite

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   contemptuous disregard

   I desired neither favor nor despite, merely what was just.

2. 2
   prep

   In spite of, not with standing.

   Despite being a near-mirror image my of right, my left hand is terrible at these stuff.

3. 3
   noun

   Disdain, contemptuous feelings, hatred.

   A fals double tunge is more fiers and fell Then Cerberus the cur couching in the kenel of hel; Wherof hereafter, I thinke for to write,

4. 4
   noun

   Action or behaviour displaying such feelings; an outrage, insult.

   he aſked kynge Arthur yf he wold gyue hym leue to ryde after Balen and to reuenge the deſpyte that he had done Doo your beſt ſaid Arthur I am right wroth ſaid Balen I wold he were quyte of the deſpyte that he hath done to me and to my Courte

5. 5
   noun

   Evil feeling; malice, spite, annoyance.

   How often am I obliged to speak mal à propos, because my features are not sufficiently charming in a state of repose!—how often is my ingenuity racked to find a word, when a look would have been far better! I am compelled to be amusing, in my own despite.

6. 6
   verb

   To vex; to annoy; to offend contemptuously.

   to despite his opposites

7. 7
   noun

   lack of respect accompanied by a feeling of intense dislike

Etymology

The noun is derived from Middle English despit, dispit, from Old French despit, from Latin dēspectum (“looking down on”), from dēspiciō (“to look down, despise”). The preposition is derived from Middle English dispit, itself derived from the phrase in dispit of (in despite of). Compare typologically Russian несмотря́ на (nesmotrjá na) (< смотре́ть (smotrétʹ)); невзира́я на (nevzirája na) (< взира́ть (vzirátʹ)), презре́в (prezrév) (< презре́ть (prezrétʹ) <~ зреть (zretʹ)) (compare despite—despise relation).