From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishspitefulspite‧ful /ˈspaɪtfəl/ adjective CRUELdeliberately nasty to someone in order to hurt or upset them SYN vicious She was spiteful and unkind, both to Isabel and to her son. a spiteful remark► see thesaurus at unkind —spitefully adverb
Examples from the Corpus
spiteful• Failure had made him bitter and spiteful.• He had entered the police station in a storm of self-righteous protest and had been by turn hectoring, belligerent and spiteful.• On the rare occasions when he was angry, Lowry could be spiteful and petty.• a spiteful liar• She had given him a spiteful look as she left, taking little catlike steps.• Loeb, the newspaper publisher, gained a national reputation as a spiteful manipulator of politics.• How could she tell him why Matilda had made such a spiteful remark?• 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. 