No pl. [a. L. animus (1) soul, (2) mind, (3) mental impulse, disposition, passion.] Actuating feeling, disposition in a particular direction, animating spirit or temper, usually of a hostile character; hence, animosity.
[1818. Not in Todd.]
1831. Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc., I. 424. The animus is to impress upon the British soldiery the duty of putting down the liberties of their country.
1840. Thackeray, Paris Sk. Bk. (1872), 212. The animus with which the case has been conducted.
1863. I. Taylor, Pentateuch, 16. Almost every page … affords an instance … of an intense feeling, or, as we say, animus; this is the word we use when a speaker or writer, who is labouring to substantiate a defamation, finds it more than he can do to repress emotions, that are not of the most amiable sort, and which he does not choose to avow.
1864. Lowell, Biglow P., Wks. 1879, 264/2. The animus that actuates the policy of a foreign country.
