two-minute hate

noun

Ritualized hatred towards a perceived enemy, especially when encouraged for political reasons.

Meanings

nountwo-minute hate (plural two-minute hates)

plural two-minute hates

  1. Ritualized hatred towards a perceived enemy, especially when encouraged for political reasons.

    Periodically they would convene impromptu two-minute hate sessions to compare notes on the arrogance and futility of philosophy and its claims on the territory of AI research.

    2012, Giuseppe Mantovani, Exploring Borders: Understanding Culture and Psychology, Routledge, →ISBN, page 113
    3 more examples

    There were to be no loyalty parades with bleating school children carrying flags down mainstreet while every heart rises ; nor were there to be pictures of the enemy showing him with claws, fangs, or tusks to induce our two-minute hates

    1958, Inland

    The contrast between the two eras is clever and effective, and, with the Great Depression still chugging along at the time of the story's first publication, contemporary readers suffering that debacle's effects would have had no trouble working up a good two-minute hate for the too-comfortable Contents.

    2005, Grant Burns, The Railroad in American Fiction: An Annotated Bibliography, McFarland, →ISBN, page 94

    Again, there is talk of America's “lost innocence,” and the ritual two-minute hate once reserved for so-called “militia sympathizers” and government critics is now directed at Islamic radicals and, by extension, the antiwar movement.

    2009, Russ Kick, You Are STILL Being Lied To: The NEW Disinformation Guide to Media Distortion, Historical Whitewashes and Cultural Myths, Red Wheel Weiser, →ISBN

Origin

From the fictional Two Minutes Hate in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Chinese Mandarin 兩分鐘仇恨 /两分钟仇恨
  • 兩分鐘仇恨 /两分钟仇恨 (liǎngfēnzhōng chóuhèn)Translations
Cite this entry
APA

two-minute hate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/two-minute%20hate

MLA

“two-minute hate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/two-minute%20hate. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “two-minute hate,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/two-minute%20hate.

Source: two-minute hate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.