All 3 Uses of
loathe
in
A Prayer for Owen Meany
- Mary Beth Baird, who had once pleaded to be allowed to kiss the Baby Jesus, glared with jealous loathing at Barb Wiggin, who must have been an exceptionally strong stewardess—in her time in the sky.†
p. 218.6 *loathing = disgust or intense dislike
- Above all things that she despised, what my grandmother loathed most was lack of effort; this struck Dan Needham as a peculiar hatred, because Harriet Wheelwright had never worked a day in her life—nor had she ever expected my mother to work; and she never once assigned me a single chore.†
p. 260.0loathed = detested or intensely disliked
- He was witty—even Owen was impressed by Lish's editorial cleverness for The Grave—and he was cordially loathed by students and faculty alike; I say "cordially," in the case of the students, because no one would have refused an invitation to one of his father's or his mother's parties.†
p. 373.4
Definition:
hate, detest, or intensely dislike
Word Confusion: Do not confuse loathe with loath which sounds very similar or the same. Loathe is a verb while loath is an adjective describing "reluctance or unwillingness to do something." Note that loathing and loathsome are forms of the verb loathe even though both word forms lack the "e". Occasionally, you will see loath spelled as loathe even in a published book, but it is rare enough that it is generally considered an error rather than a non-standard spelling.