From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishspitefulspite‧ful /ˈspaɪtfəl/ adjectiveCRUELdeliberately nasty to someone in order to hurt or upset themSYN vicious
She was spiteful and unkind, both to Isabel and to her son.
a spiteful remark► see thesaurus at unkind —spitefully adverbExamples from the Corpusspiteful• Failure had made him bitter and spiteful.• He had entered the police station in a storm of self-righteousprotest and had been by turn hectoring, belligerent and spiteful.• On the rareoccasions when he was angry, Lowry could be spiteful and petty.• a spitefulliar• She had given him a spiteful look as she left, taking little catlike steps.• Loeb, the newspaperpublisher, gained a national reputation as a spitefulmanipulator of politics.• How could she tell him why Matilda had made such a spitefulremark?• I tried to like Julie but I couldn't forget how spiteful she'd been to me in the past.• That was a wicked and spiteful thing to do.• His white face was spiteful, threatening and suggestive.• You shouldn't be so spiteful to your sister.• His book challenged Galileo in the most spiteful way.
