Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English.
1.
You use in ~ of to introduce a fact which makes the rest of the statement you are making seem surprising.
Their love of life comes in ~ of, almost in defiance of, considerable hardship.
= de~
PREP-PHRASE
2.
If you do something in ~ of yourself, you do it although you did not really intend to or expect to.
The blunt comment made Richard laugh in ~ of himself...
PREP-PHRASE: PREP pron-refl
3.
If you do something cruel out of ~, you do it because you want to hurt or upset someone.
I refused her a divorce, out of ~ I suppose...
N-UNCOUNT
4.
If you do something cruel to ~ someone, you do it in order to hurt or upset them.
Pantelaras was giving his art collection away for nothing, to ~ Marie and her husband.
VERB: only to-inf, V n
5.
to cut off your nose to ~ your face: see nose