• (British) IPA: /dɪˈspaɪt/

1. In spite of, notwithstanding, regardless of.
   • 1592–1609, William Shakespeare, Sonnet III:

     So thou through windows of thine age shall see

     Despite of wrinkles this thy golden time.

   • 1592–1609, William Shakespeare, Sonnet XIX:

     Yet, do thy worst, old Time: despite thy wrong,

     My love shall in my verse ever live young.

• in spite of, maugre; see also Thesaurus:despite

despite

1. (obsolete) Disdain, contemptuous feelings, hatred.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981 ↗, Ezekiel 25:6 ↗:

     all thy despite against the land of Israel

   • 1599, Much Ado About Nothing, by William Shakespeare, Act 1 Scene 1

     DON PEDRO. Thou wast ever an obstinate heretic in the despite of beauty.

2. (archaic) Action or behaviour displaying such feelings; an outrage, insult.
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, [http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/MaloryWks2/1:4.4?rgn=div2;view=fulltext chapter iiij], in Le Morte Darthur, book II:

     he asked kynge Arthur yf he wold gyue hym leue to ryde after Balen and to reuenge the despyte that he had done / Doo your best said Arthur I am right wroth said Balen I wold he were quyte of the despyte that he hath done to me and to my Courte

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book 6”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:

     a despite done against the Most High

3. Evil feeling; malice, spite.
   • , tr. Richard Crawley, Thucydides The Peloponnesian War:

     And for these Corcyraeans--neither receive them into alliance in our despite, nor be their abettors in crime.

• French: en dépit de, malgré
• German: trotz
• Italian: nonostante, sebbene, malgrado
• Portuguese: a despeito de, apesar de, não obstante
• Russian: несмотря
• Spanish: a pesar de, pese a, no obstante, maguer, malgrado

despite (despites, present participle despiting; past and past participle despited)

1. (obsolete) To vex; to annoy; to offend contemptuously.