Use detest when dislike is intense and often moral, personal, or physical, not when something is merely inconvenient.
Use detest when dislike is intense and often moral, personal, or physical, not when something is merely inconvenient.
| Incorrect | Correct |
| I detest this song a little. | I dislike this song a little. |
| She detests of spiders. | She detests spiders. |
| He is detesting the noise right now. | He detests the noise right now. |
| We detest to wait in line. | We detest waiting in line. |
Use detest in this sense only for older formal prose or deliberate imitation of it, since modern English normally uses condemn, denounce, or curse.
| Incorrect | Correct |
| The court detested the contract yesterday. | The court condemned the contract yesterday. |
| The mayor detested the new policy at the meeting. | The mayor denounced the new policy at the meeting. |
| The review detested the film for weak acting. | The review condemned the film for weak acting. |
| The committee detested the error in its report. | The committee censured the error in its report. |
Use detest for strong, often emphatic dislike. For ordinary preferences, dislike, do not like, or hate may sound more natural.
Detest of someone is wrong. The verb takes a direct object or a gerund, as in detest spiders and detest waiting.
From French détester and Latin detestari, originally tied to calling a god or witness against something before the word settled into the sense of hating intensely.