'Hostilities' definitions:
Definition of 'hostilities'
From: WordNet
noun
Fighting; acts of overt warfare; "the outbreak of hostilities" [syn: hostilities, belligerency]
Definition of 'Hostilities'
From: GCIDE
- Hostility \Hos*til"i*ty\, n.; pl. Hostilities. [L. hostilitas: cf. F. hostilit['e].]
- 1. State of being hostile; public or private enemy; unfriendliness; animosity. [1913 Webster]
- Hostility being thus suspended with France. --Hayward. [1913 Webster]
- 2. An act of an open enemy; a hostile deed; especially in the plural, acts of warfare; attacks of an enemy. See hostilities [1913 Webster]
- He who proceeds to wanton hostility, often provokes an enemy where he might have a friend. --Crabb.
- Syn: Animosity; enmity; opposition; violence; aggression; contention; warfare. [1913 Webster]
Definition of 'hostilities'
From: GCIDE
- hostilities \hostilities\ n. pl.
- 1. a legal state created by a declaration of war and ended by official declaration, during which the international rules of war apply.
- Syn: war, state of war, hot war. [WordNet 1.5]
- We have showed ourselves generous adversaries . . . and have carried on even our hostilities with humanity. --Atterbury. [1913 Webster]
- 2. acts of overt warfare.
- Syn: belligerency. [WordNet 1.5]
Synonyms of 'hostilities'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- all-out war,
- appeal to arms,
- armed combat,
- armed conflict,
- attack,
- battle,
- belligerence,
- belligerency,
- bloodshed,
- combat,
- fighting,
- hot war,
- la guerre,
- might of arms,
- military operations,
- open hostilities,
- open war,
- resort to arms,
- shooting war,
- state of war,
- the sword,
- total war,
- war,
- warfare,
- warmaking,
- warring,
- wartime