despite

prep

1. In spite of, not with standing.

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

   “So thou through windowes of thine age ſhalt ſee, Diſpight of wrinkles this thy goulden time.”

   “Yet doe thy worſt old Time diſpight thy wrong, My loue ſhall in my verſe euer liue young.”

   “The highway to the East Coast which ran through the borough of Ebbfield had always been a main road and even now, despite the vast garages, the pylons and the gaily painted factory glasshouses which had sprung up beside it, there still remained an occasional trace of past cultures.”

   “Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage.”

noun

1. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)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,”

   “Thou waſt euer an obſtinate heretique in the deſpight of Beautie.”

   “all thy despite against the land of Israel”

2. (archaic, countable, uncountable)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”

   “Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye, shall hee be thought worthy, who hath troden vnder foote þe Sonne of God, and hath counted the blood of the couenant wherwith he was sanctified, an vnholy thing, and hath done despite vnto the spirit of grace?”

   “a deſpite done againſt the Moſt High”

3. (countable, uncountable)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.”

   “And for these Corcyraeans—neither receive them into alliance in our despite, nor be their abettors in crime.”

verb

1. (obsolete)To vex; to annoy; to offend contemptuously.

   “to despite his opposites”