flout

[ flout ]
See synonyms for: floutfloutedfloutingflouter on Thesaurus.com

verb (used with object)
  1. to treat with disdain, scorn, or contempt; scoff at; mock: to flout the rules of propriety.

verb (used without object)
  1. to show disdain, scorn, or contempt; scoff, mock, or gibe (often followed by at).

noun
  1. a disdainful, scornful, or contemptuous remark or act; insult; gibe.

Origin of flout

1
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English flouten “to play the flute” (see flute); compare Dutch fluiten “to play the flute, talk smoothly, soothe, blandish, impose upon, jeer”

confusables note For flout

See flaunt.

Other words from flout

  • flouter, noun
  • flout·ing·ly, adverb
  • un·flout·ed, adjective

Words that may be confused with flout

Words Nearby flout

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use flout in a sentence

  • It is one of the oldest institutions of the country, which even we upon our hundred acres would not have dared to flout.

  • We English, once upon a time, did especially flout the little nation then acting a history that proved worth the writing.

    Ceres' Runaway | Alice Meynell
  • Couldn't afford to offend Railway Directors, yet wouldn't do to flout numerous body of working-men, chiefly voters.

  • Very easy it is for you, who have the impudence to flout kings, to talk thus to one who is frightened of strangers.

    The Court Jester | Cornelia Baker
  • Is it a safe thing, think you, Sir Count, to jest with a princess in her own land and then come back to flout her for it?

    Joan of the Sword Hand | S(amuel) R(utherford) Crockett

British Dictionary definitions for flout

flout

/ (flaʊt) /


verb
  1. (when intr, usually foll by at) to show contempt (for); scoff or jeer (at)

Origin of flout

1
C16: perhaps from Middle English flouten to play the flute, from Old French flauter compare Dutch fluiten; see flute

flout

See flaunt

Derived forms of flout

  • flouter, noun
  • floutingly, adverb

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012