Definition of "animus" []

• An attitude that informs one's actions; disposition. (noun)
• A feeling of animosity; ill will. See Synonyms at enmity. (noun)
• In Jungian psychology, the masculine inner personality as present in women. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "It's strange that conservatives reflexively counsel welfare recipients to take responsibility and get off the dole, and yet are unwilling to acknowledge what common sense and the data linked to above clearly demonstrate: anti-American animus is largely the result of American foreign policy."
• "“I should scarcely expect any animus from a man of your acquirements and knowledge of the world,” the Judge was saying."
• "While Governor Huckabee has suffered a few unwarranted attacks, such as deconstructions of his good-hearted Christmas commercial, the notion that criticism of his candidacy stems from anti-evangelical animus is at best silly and at worst a form of pernicious “identity politics”."