deride
Americanverb (used with object)
-
derides,
present (3rd person singular)
-
derided,
past participle, past
-
deriding
present participle
verb
Synonym Usage
See ridicule.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
deridesimple
-
deridessimple
-
have deridedperfect
-
has deridedperfect
-
am deridingprogressive
-
are deridingprogressive
-
is deridingprogressive
-
have been deridingperfect progressive
-
has been deridingperfect progressive
Past
-
deridedsimple
-
had deridedperfect
-
was deridingprogressive
-
were deridingprogressive
-
had been deridingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of deride
First recorded in 1520–30; from Latin dērīdēre “to mock,” equivalent to dē- de- + rīdēre “to laugh”
Explanation
The verb deride means to speak to someone with contempt or show a low opinion of someone or something. A bully might constantly deride other kids in his class — which might lead to many afternoons spent in the principal's office. To "ride" people is to get on their case or give them a hard time, and to deride is to do the same with insulting language or poor treatment. Deride comes from the Latin root dērīdēre, meaning "to ridicule, to scorn," and it's often used to express dislike or even hatred. Criticizing something with words is a common way to deride, and politicians often deride each other in their speeches during election campaigns.
Vocabulary lists containing deride
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But her observation that the adjective “selfy” was coined by a 17th-century Scottish minister and meant to deride self-centeredness comes across as unnecessarily avuncular information.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
But making them sound like centuries old technology is a way to deride their worth.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2025
It has always been popular, and continues to be popular, to make fun of lawyers, to deride lawyers, to denigrate lawyers, and I get that we deserve a lot of what we get.
From Slate ● Mar. 17, 2025
Because while a lot of people deride it, a lot of people love it, too.
From Salon ● Feb. 24, 2025
M. M. C.’s letter is just one of many that deride Joey’s arrival.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
Among the low performers are one that he derides as packed with tourists, another "with barking dogs," and a third he says is "quiet but with no one to talk to."
From Barron's ● Mar. 8, 2026
The American Mini Pig Association derides the use of terms like “teacup” as misleading and discourages promises of adult pigs under 75 pounds in its code of ethics.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 3, 2026
With searing yet quiet familiarity, Victor derides the way trauma is handled with callous frigidity.
From Salon ● Jul. 28, 2025
He also derides their former classmates with gusto: ”It’s funny that no one other than us is successful, isn’t it?”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 21, 2025
"And in the same breath he derides the aristocracy!" retorted the old lady, with a giggle.
From The Maid of Honour, Vol. 1 (of 3) A Tale of the Dark Days of France by Lewis Wingfield
And that is exactly what makes Tanden’s transformation into one of the country’s most widely derided Twitter pundits so bizarre.
From Slate ● Oct. 15, 2026
Mellencamp once derided his albums from the ’90s as “paint-by-numbers” affairs that he only made because he couldn’t get out of his record deal.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026
Now, sociology, long derided by many academics in humanities and the “harder” social sciences for its perceived squishiness, is being criticized from within.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
Three Lions, the song written by David Baddiel, Frank Skinner and the Lightning Seeds for Euro 96, has long been derided outside of England for its supposed arrogance.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
Everything was custom engineered—“no hand-me-down magnets, no industrial discards . . . ‘no patch work,’ ” as the Joliots’ emissary Maurice Nahmias had derided the old standards.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
It was perhaps inevitable that judges would bristle at a government spokeswoman deriding them as hacks.
From Slate ● Feb. 18, 2026
He was popular, but for a long time the critics condescended to him, calling him a lightweight Sunday painter and deriding him for his “matchstick” figures.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025
At the Border Patrol’s takeover of MacArthur Park earlier this month, Newman was there shooting video and deriding the spectacle as “a dystopian episode of ‘The Apprentice.’”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2025
Mr Johnson had made separate comments deriding human rights lawyers in his October 2020 party conference speech, but did not refer to Duncan Lewis or immigration cases.
From BBC ● Dec. 11, 2024
How I blessed those stolid, flannelled figures, for in a few minutes his face had settled back into repose, the colour had returned, and he was deriding the Surrey bowling in healthy irritation.
From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
