hated

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of hate.

   He hated the cold winters when he lived up north.

   The critics hated the film, though audiences flocked to see it.

   Note

   Here the regular -ed ending does double duty, so one spelling covers both the past tense and the participle. After have, it builds perfect tenses (she had hated it for years). After be, it forms the passive (he was hated by his rivals). The transitive and intransitive uses of hate both share this form, and so does the slang phrasal verb hate on, whose past is hated on.

   He was hated by the very people he had tried to help.

   Strangers online hated on her new haircut for weeks.

2. 2
   adjective

   Regarded with strong dislike; odious or reviled.

   The dictator remained a hated figure long after his death.

   Few tax measures have ever been as hated as this one.

   Similardespised, detested, loathed, odious, hateful

   Oppositeloved, beloved, popular

   Note

   A past participle that hardened into an adjective: Old English hatod was the participle "hated," and the verb form shares this spelling and origin. As an adjective it is gradable, so it takes more hated and most hated. It pairs naturally with intensifiers such as bitterly hated and universally hated. Much-hated is usually hyphenated, especially before a noun (a much-hated tax).

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