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Mortal enemy   /mˈɔrtəl ˈɛnəmi/   Listen
Mortal enemy

noun
1.
An enemy who wants to kill you.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Mortal enemy" Quotes from Famous Books



... her egg upon the honey, therefore, the Anthophora at the same time deposits in her cell the mortal enemy of her race; she carefully plasters the lid which closes the entrance to the cell; and all is done. A second cell is built beside it, probably to suffer the same fatal doom; and so on until the more or less numerous parasites ...
— The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles • Jean Henri Fabre

... his name, and he deserves his fate; His father heads the faction which I hate: But much I wonder, that with him I see The daughter of his mortal enemy. ...
— The Works Of John Dryden, Volume 4 (of 18) - Almanzor And Almahide, Marriage-a-la-Mode, The Assignation • John Dryden

... way to see what was coming, and through a hole in the sod wall made out the evil face of a mink, peering in. It came closer, and there were more cries from the chickens overhead, for they had recognized the approach of their mortal enemy. In a moment his long, shining body had come through the hole, and he had paused, crouching, to reconnoiter ...
— The Biography of a Prairie Girl • Eleanor Gates

... thus escaped from their pursuers they proceeded to Glaukias, the king of the Illyrians. They found him sitting at home with his wife, and they laid the child on the ground between them. The king was full of thought, for he feared Kassander, the mortal enemy of AEakides, and he remained silent for a long time. Meanwhile Pyrrhus of his own accord crawled up to Glaukias, took hold of his cloak and then stood up at his knees, causing the king first to smile and then to feel pity for him, as ...
— Plutarch's Lives, Volume II • Aubrey Stewart & George Long

... reward,) was and is on like wise condemned to the pains of hell. Wherein no sooner was she descended than it was decreed unto her and to me, for penance thereof,[284] that she should flee before me and that I, who once loved her so dear, should pursue her, not as a beloved mistress, but as a mortal enemy, and that, as often as I overtook her, I should slay her with this tuck, wherewith I slew myself, and ripping open her loins, tear from her body, as thou shalt presently see, that hard and cold heart, wherein ...
— The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio • Giovanni Boccaccio

... new Assembly, and should that Assembly decide {224} to convoke a Constituent Assembly, and should this Constituent Assembly invite King Constantine back, the "Reaction" would find itself confronted with the hostility of a large political party which had become the mortal enemy of the ex-king; and he went on to foreshadow a fresh schism in the army: that is, civil war. Encouraged by so solemn a sanction, Venizelist candidates—notably at Tyrnavo in Thessaly and Dervenion in Argolis—told their constituents without any circumlocution ...
— Greece and the Allies 1914-1922 • G. F. Abbott

... well as that of the others, Sara broke down and wept bitterly. After all, she was sorry for Challis's mother. It was the human instinct; she could not hold out against it. And the older woman put away the ancient grudge she held against this mortal enemy and dissolved ...
— The Hollow of Her Hand • George Barr McCutcheon

... these gentlemen to be present at the same time. My friend, the Comte de la Fere, has acquainted me with the injurious reports you are spreading about myself. You have stated that you regard me as your mortal enemy, because I was, so you affirm, that of ...
— Ten Years Later • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... promises he will put her out of reach of Aucassin. Thereupon he shuts her up in a tower, along with her nurse, where there is but a single window. And the count promises his son that he shall have his "douce mie" if he will go to fight against the mortal enemy of their house, the Count of Vallence. Aucassin believes his father; goes and captures the count. Then the father refuses to fulfil his promise. Aucassin in a rage releases the Count of Vallence, and the Count of Beaucaire imprisons ...
— In Troubadour-Land - A Ramble in Provence and Languedoc • S. Baring-Gould

... getting himself into difficulties never shone more brightly than at this hour. While here in the country of his mortal enemy, on the last days of his expiring safe-conduct, he got news of accusations gravely sustained at Geneva that he had gone over into Savoy to treat with the enemy. He did not dare to stay: he did not dare to go back. If he could get his safe-conduct extended for one month, to the ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 22. July, 1878. • Various

... of the Barbary powers, though unjust in principle, is suited to their prejudices, situation, and circumstances. The crusades of the church to exterminate them fixed in their minds the unobliterated belief that every Christian power was their mortal enemy. Their religious prejudices, therefore, suggest the policy, which their situation and circumstances protect them in. As a people, they are neither commercial nor agricultural, they neither import nor export, have no property ...
— The Writings Of Thomas Paine, Complete - With Index to Volumes I - IV • Thomas Paine

... my entreaties or my complaints? And my proud lady, who sauced her charities with the taunts she thought I heard not—she was justly paid by the passing her dearest and most secret concerns into the hands of her mortal enemy; and the vain Earl—yet he was a thing as insignificant as the plume that nodded in his cap;—and the maidens and ladies who taunted me—I had, or can easily have, my revenge upon them. But there is one," she added, looking upward, "who never taunted me; one whose ...
— Peveril of the Peak • Sir Walter Scott

... saw his religion persecuted. His official character did not save him from some personal affronts which, to the latest day of his long career, he never forgot. He went home a devoted adherent of William and a mortal enemy of Lewis. [76] ...
— The History of England from the Accession of James II. - Volume 3 (of 5) • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... "My son's mortal enemy!" cried the old workman, as he threw a glance of aversion at Father d'Aigrigny, whose ...
— The Wandering Jew, Complete • Eugene Sue

... into a run, his elbows drawn in, and his head lowered, roaring as though he were running to grapple with a mortal enemy. In the dark he collided with posts and trees. But he did not care. A mad instinct to kill, to destroy, was carrying him wildly toward ...
— Mayflower (Flor de mayo) • Vicente Blasco Ibanez

... tower, and appears at a distance rather as the remnant of some extensive building, than a complete and perfect edifice, as it now exists. It was built more than two centuries ago, by a man named Maurice Cooke; not, indeed, as a strong hold from the arms of a mortal enemy, but as a refuge from the evils of destiny. He was the proprietor of extensive estates in the neighbourhood; and while his lady was pregnant with her first child, as she was one evening walking in their domains, ...
— Thaumaturgia • An Oxonian

... Sanuto, gives a more sensational account of the interview. According to him, Isabella absolutely refused to see the king, and, seizing a dagger, declared she would stab herself rather than meet her father's mortal enemy. Lodovico, however, in the end induced her to receive the king, upon which she threw herself in tears at the feet of Charles VIII., and implored him to spare her father and brother and the house of Aragon. The king's kindly heart was ...
— Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Milan, 1475-1497 • Julia Mary Cartwright

... me! Am I to be on friendly terms with—with your mortal enemy?" She was still smiling, but now her sensitive ...
— The Fighting Chance • Robert W. Chambers

... wary prudence is a mortal enemy to all high and generous exploits. Scipio, to sound Syphax's intention, leaving his army, abandoning Spain, not yet secure nor well settled in his new conquest, could pass over into Africa in two small ships, to commit himself, in ...
— The Essays of Montaigne, Complete • Michel de Montaigne

... that was unbearable seemed to be creeping over the occupants of the great boat. Even Dan'l, who looked upon Dexter as his mortal enemy, and who had suggested, in the hope of seeing him sent to prison, that the surest way of capturing the boys was to go down to the mouth of the river—even Dan'l felt the chill of ...
— Quicksilver - The Boy With No Skid To His Wheel • George Manville Fenn

... have a modification of this infliction forced upon him. This will occur when he happens to be living in a house frequented by "a good reader," who solemnly devotes certain hours to the reading of passages from the English or French classics for the benefit of the company, and becomes the mortal enemy of every guest who absents himself from the ...
— The Book-Hunter - A New Edition, with a Memoir of the Author • John Hill Burton

... unfortunate man must not, however, be carried farther; when, therefore, it is in contemplation to dishonour his very corpse by the refusal of interment, even Ulysses interferes. He owes the honours of burial to that Ulysses whom in life he had looked upon as his mortal enemy, and to whom, in the dreadful introductory scene, Pallas shows, in the example of the delirious Ajax, the nothingness of man. Thus Ulysses appears as the personification of moderation, which, if it had been possessed by Ajax, ...
— Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature • August Wilhelm Schlegel

... you are already abased," replied Anne. "A few weeks ago I would have made terms with you. Now I am your mortal enemy, and will never rest till I have procured ...
— Windsor Castle • William Harrison Ainsworth

... eleven—that was the time for her going to bed, but the hour had become a redoubtable one. Bedtime filled her with fear, and the thought of another sleepless night deprived her of all courage. She did not dare to go upstairs. She sat in her armchair as if in terror of a mortal enemy. She had hidden the bottle, but her maid had ordered another. There were now two, sufficient to procure death, said her conscience, and since dinner the temptation to commit suicide had been growing in her brain; like a vulture ...
— Evelyn Innes • George Moore



Words linked to "Mortal enemy" :   enemy, foe



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