When you're spiteful, you act in a mean way, with a desire to hurt someone. If your little brother was driving you crazy, you could calmly ignore him — or you could give him a spiteful pinch.
If you act or speak with the desire to hurt, bother, or infuriate someone, you are being spiteful. You could deliberately hurt someone's feelings or embarrass them with your spiteful words, or you could watch a jealous child give her friend a spiteful shove. The Latin word despectus, or "scorn or contempt," became the English despite, later shortened to spite, or "a desire to hurt someone."
