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contempt
[ kuhn-tempt ]
noun
- the feeling with which a person regards anything considered mean, vile, or worthless; disdain; scorn.
- the state of being despised; dishonor; disgrace.
- Law.
- willful disobedience to or open disrespect for the rules or orders of a court contempt of court or legislative body.
- an act showing such disrespect.
contempt
/ kənˈtɛmpt /
noun
- the attitude or feeling of a person towards a person or thing that he considers worthless or despicable; scorn
- the state of being scorned; disgrace (esp in the phrase hold in contempt )
- wilful disregard of or disrespect for the authority of a court of law or legislative body
contempt of court
Other Words From
- self-con·tempt noun
Word History and Origins
Word History and Origins
Origin of contempt1
Idioms and Phrases
see familiarity breeds contempt .Synonym Study
Example Sentences
“Internationally there has been a lot of horror and contempt for her actions, domestically very little,” he said.
Alastair Sim had jowls like melting candle wax, a snarl like a cornered cat and eyes cold with contempt.
Their pronouncements suggest that they hold those commitments in contempt.
Trierweiler claims that Hollande, a socialist, showed contempt for the poor, supposedly calling them “the toothless.”
The President and his party are making their contempt all too clear to white working-class voters.
It is then we make him our friend, which sets us above the envy and contempt of wicked men.
Her eyes were blazing with triumph, yet her lips curved with contempt at the attitude of her trembling father.
If he had cut her, he would have shown less contempt than in that stiff raising of the hat.
He threw into the last two words an indescribable sound of half-laughing contempt.
Lifted to the skies for an hour by popular adulation, he has been sunk into obscurity ever since by historic contempt.
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Related Words
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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