'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