despite sb. (3 the prepositional use is not pre-S.)
1.
contempt, scorn, disdain
Ado I. i. 245
“an obstinate heretic in
the despite of beauty,”
Oth. IV. ii. 116.
2.
malice, ill-will:
“in ,” out of
ill-will, spitefully H5 III. v.
17,
Oth. IV. iii. 94
“scant our former having
in despite.”
3.
“in ,” in defiance of
another's wish MND. V. i.
112,
Shr. Ind. i. 128
“An onion . . . Shall in
enforce a watery eye,”
Rom. V. iii. 48, Lucr.
<*>5; esp. “in
of,
in” (a person's) “,”
notwithstanding the opposition of Wiv. V. v. 135, 3H6 I. i. 158, Cym. IV. i. 16; Err. III. i. 108*
“in of mirth”
(Theobald “wrath†),
mean to be merry”; hence “
(of)”
Meas. I. ii. 26
“ of all
controversy,”
Ado V. i. 75
“ his
nice fence”
(the word here becoming a
preposition).
