Spite, n.
Etymology: [Abbreviated fr. despite.]
1. Ill-will or hatred toward another, accompanied with the disposition to irritate, annoy, or thwart; petty malice; grudge; rancor; despite. Pope. This is the deadly spite that angers. Shak.
2. Vexation; chargrin; mortification. [R.] Shak. In spite of, or Spite of, in opposition to all efforts of; in defiance or contempt of; notwithstanding. "Continuing, spite of pain, to use a knee after it had been slightly ibnjured." H. Spenser. "And saved me in spite of the world, the devil, and myself." South. "In spite of all applications, the patient grew worse every day." Arbuthnot. See Syn. under Notwithstanding. -- To owe one a spite, to entertain a mean hatred for him.
Syn. -- Pique, rancor; malevolence; grudge. -- Spite, Malice. Malice has more reference to the disposition, and spite to the manifestation of it in words and actions. It is, therefore, meaner than malice, thought not always more criminal. " Malice . . . is more frequently employed to express the dispositions of inferior minds to execute every purpose of mischief within the more limited circle of their abilities." Cogan. "Consider eke, that spite availeth naught." Wyatt. See Pique.
1 other Webster entry under this spelling
Spite, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Spited; p. pr. & vb. n. Spiting.]
1. To be angry at; to hate. [Obs.] The Danes, then . . . pagans, spited places of religion. Fuller.
2. To treat maliciously; to try to injure or thwart.
3. To fill with spite; to offend; to vex. [R.] Darius, spited at the Magi, endeavored to abolish not only their learning, but their language. Sir. W. Temple.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for spite; he lists it under enmity, hatred.
Where he writes about it:
Spite is petty malice that delights to inflict stinging pain; grudge is deeper than spite; it is sinister and bitter; grudge, resentment, and revenge are all retaliatory, grudge being the disposition, revenge the determination to repay real or supposed offense with injury; revenge may denote also the retaliatory act; resentment, the best word of the three, always holds itself to be justifiable, but looks less certainly to action than grudge or revenge. — from hatred