Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
From Middle French detester, from Latin detestari (“to imprecate evil while calling the gods to witness", "denounce", "hate intensely”), from de- + testari (“to testify, bear witness”), from testis (“a witness”); see test, testify.
- (transitive) To dislike intensely; to loathe.
- I detest snakes.
- Who dares think one thing, and another tell, / My heart detests him as the gates of hell. — Pope.
- (obsolete) To witness against; to denounce; to condemn.
- The heresy of Nestorius […] was detested in the Eastern churches. — Fuller.
- God hath detested them with his own mouth. — Bale.
- See also Wikisaurus:hate
- detest in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- detest in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911