2. The quality that provokes hatred; offensiveness.
She threw the odium of the fact on me. --Dryden.
{Odium theologicum}[L.], the enmity peculiar to contending
theologians.
Syn: Hatred; abhorrence; detestation; antipathy.
Usage: {Odium}, {Hatred}. We exercise hatred; we endure
odium. The former has an active sense, the latter a
passive one. We speak of having a hatred for a man,
but not of having an odium toward him. A tyrant incurs
odium. The odium of an offense may sometimes fall
unjustly upon one who is innocent.
I wish I had a cause to seek him there, To
oppose his hatred fully. --Shak.
You have . . . dexterously thrown some of the
odium of your polity upon that middle class
which you despise. --Beaconsfield.