hosticide
Syllables: hos·ti·cideUK/ˈhɒstɪsaɪd/US/ˈhɑstɪsaɪd/
hosticide noun: the act of killing an enemy.
Noun
hosticide (uncountable)
- The act of killing an enemy.
- VVith vinegar make ſpear the ſpoil divide,
And lancepreſado be to hoſticide:1666, William Austin, Ἐπιλοιμια ἐπη. Or, the Anatomy of the Pestilence, page 92 - how can I be safe when so many are privy to our hosticide, as your Lordship terms the death of Overbury.1822, Robert Carr, Blighted Ambition, page 352
- VVith vinegar make ſpear the ſpoil divide,
Examples of hosticide in a sentence
- For the argument that Milton advocated not regicide but tyrannicide and hosticide, see also Dzelzainis, 'Milton and the Regicide'.2014, William Walker, Antiformalist, Unrevolutionary, Illiberal Milton, page 12:
- I was curious about the fate of Ras Mikael who came to the palace of lyoas as a guest and committed the hosticide.2015, Alexander Raju, And Still Plays the Abyssinian Damsel on her Dulcimer, page 240:
Origin of hosticide
From Latin hostis (“enemy”) + English -cide or Latin caedere (“to kill”).
Questions about hosticide
- What does hosticide mean?
- Hosticide means the act of killing an enemy.
- How do you use hosticide in a sentence?
- For the argument that Milton advocated not regicide but tyrannicide and hosticide, see also Dzelzainis, 'Milton and the Regicide'.
- What part of speech is hosticide?
- Hosticide is a noun.
- How do you pronounce hosticide?
- Hosticide is pronounced /ˈhɒstɪsaɪd/ (UK).
Words near hosticide in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hosticide (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “hosticide.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hosticide. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.