If you detest someone or something, you dislike them very much. My mother detested him Jean detested being photographed. = loathe. to hate something or someone very much (detestari, from testis )
[ di-'test, dE- ] (transitive verb.) circa 1535. Middle French detester or Latin detestari; Middle French detester, from Latin detestari, literally, to curse while calling a deity to witness, from de- + testari to call to witness; more at TESTAMENT.