vendetta

noun ven·det·ta \ ven-ˈde-tə \

|Updated on: 6 Jul 2018

Examples: vendetta in a Sentence

Editor's Note: Did You Know?

Definition of vendetta

1 : blood feud

2 : an often prolonged series of retaliatory, vengeful, or hostile acts or exchange of such acts

waged a personal vendetta against those who opposed his nomination

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Examples of vendetta in a Sentence

He waged a personal vendetta against his rivals in the Senate.

Recent Examples of vendetta from the Web

Without Blunt’s character on hand to serve as an audience surrogate, the film’s sympathies instead shift to Gillick, a cold-blooded murderer with a longstanding personal vendetta against the cartels.

— david sims, The Atlantic, "Sicario: Day of the Soldado," 2 July 2018
But Jarrod Ramos’ deadly expression of rage toward journalists should not be reduced merely to a personal vendetta.

— brian chasnoff, San Antonio Express-News, "Menace toward journalists has grown under Trump," 29 June 2018
The five names were those of the dedicated professionals who came to the (Annapolis) Capital's newsroom Thursday for the last time, their lives ended allegedly by a man police say had waged a long-running vendetta against the newspaper.

— the washington post editorial staff, star-telegram, "An attack on journalism itself," 29 June 2018
The government isn’t a president’s play toy and whoever uses that office to carry out personal vendettas should pay a high price for that.

— elizabeth drew, The New Republic, "The Number of Trump’s Impeachable Offenses Keeps Growing," 22 May 2018
No one seems to notice that Rick (Ephram Ellis) has seemingly risen from the dead, but Drake's real-life friends still have a vendetta against Rick, who shot Drake's character in the fourth season of the show.

— temi adebowale, Seventeen, "These Are the Degrassi References You Missed in Drake's 'I'm Upset' Video," 14 June 2018
The episode takes a break from both Maeve's (Thandie Newton) and Dolores's (Evan Rachel Wood) storylines, leaving their personal vendettas behind to explore more philosophical questions.

— kelly lawler, USA TODAY, "'Westworld' recap: A return, a reveal and a twist that changes everything in Episode 4," 13 May 2018
Prentis Robinson rarely went a day without using Facebook Live — his favorite way of broadcasting his music, his personal vendettas and, authorities said, his suspicions about who in the town was dealing drugs.

— marwa eltagouri, Washington Post, "He had been outing suspected drug dealers on Facebook Live. Then a gunman entered the frame.," 27 Feb. 2018
Trump forgot to acknowledge that the man with the angry vendetta (Mueller) was appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who was appointed by Trump.

— stephen a. crockett jr., The Root, "Trump Wants America to Know He Can Pardon Himself, but He Didn’t Do Anything Wrong," 4 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'vendetta.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

Vendetta has been getting even in English since the mid-19th century. English speakers borrowed vendetta, spelling and all, from Italian, in which it means "revenge." It ultimately traces to the Latin verb vindicare, which means "to lay claim to" or "to avenge." That Latin word is also in the family tree of many other English terms related to getting even, including avenge, revenge, vengeance, vindicate, and vindictive.

Origin and Etymology of vendetta

borrowed from Italian, "retribution, revenge, blood feud," going back to Latin vindicta — more at vindictive

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1855

in the meaning defined at sense 1

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VENDETTA Defined for English Language Learners

vendetta

noun

Definition of vendetta for English Language Learners

: a very long and violent fight between two families or groups
: a series of acts done by someone over a long period of time to cause harm to a disliked person or group