disdain
Americanverb (used with object)
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disdains,
present (3rd person singular)
-
disdained,
past participle, past
-
disdaining
present participle
noun
noun
verb
Synonym Usage
See contempt.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
disdainsimple
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disdainssimple
-
have disdainedperfect
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has disdainedperfect
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am disdainingprogressive
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are disdainingprogressive
-
is disdainingprogressive
-
have been disdainingperfect progressive
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has been disdainingperfect progressive
Past
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disdainedsimple
-
had disdainedperfect
-
was disdainingprogressive
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were disdainingprogressive
-
had been disdainingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of disdain
First recorded in 1300–50; (for the verb) Middle English disdainen, from Anglo-French de(s)deigner, equivalent to dis- 1 + deign; noun derivative of the verb
Explanation
If you feel that something isn't worthy of your consideration, you may disdain it (or treat it with disdain). In Old French, deignier meant "to treat something as worthy." To disdain something, then, is to treat it with contempt: "Management at [the company] displayed a certain disdain for safety and appeared to regard safety-conscious workers as wimps in the organization." As a verb, disdain carries an air of self-righteousness not associated with similar words like despise, abhor, detest, loathe and scorn. So if you disdain something, you might reject it with a haughty scoff, "Ha!"
Vocabulary lists containing disdain
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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:
The disdain in her eyes wards off anyone from seeing weakness.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
It argued that while men and women have equal worth, they aren’t identical, and that Americans treat traditional sex roles with unreasonable disdain.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026
I am not going to calculate how many working Mondays I’ve had in my life, but even before I was working, I had a Garfield-esque disdain for the day.
From Salon ● Sep. 14, 2026
Another point in Europe’s favor is that international investors view the region much like Bessent does, with indifference if not disdain.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 9, 2026
She glanced over at me with the usual look of disdain and started to load her clothes into the washer.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
With no action expected on rates on Wednesday, the attention will be on him: Will he submit a forecast for rate projections he disdains?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 2026
The former Fox News personality, who served as an Army National Guard infantry officer in Iraq and Afghanistan, disdains rules of engagement and other guardrails as constraining to the “warrior ethos.”
From Salon ● Mar. 11, 2026
Finkel’s account, based largely on interviews with Breitwieser, is of a romantic hero who disdains practical details as much as security ones, and who is “crushed” when Stengel deigns to buy Ikea furniture.
From New York Times ● Jun. 24, 2023
For Polis, who disdains hardliners in both parties, ideology is something of a four-letter word.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 21, 2023
Do you see how awful it is to be in love with someone who disdains you?
From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri
Air conditioning, long disdained in France, is "no longer taboo at all", Jehanno said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
But the nearer Manzo was to the center of traditional politics, the more he disdained them.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 2026
In a December 1904 message to Congress, Roosevelt disdained any “unmanly” inclination to a “peace of tyrannous terror, the peace of craven weakness, the peace of injustice.”
From Salon ● Dec. 27, 2025
A spokesman pointed me to an interview in which AWS CEO Matt Garman disdained the idea of replacing entry-level staff with AI bots, calling it “one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 23, 2025
Thula considered the music that Harry and Joe enjoyed coarse, she was not particularly happy to have Nellie’s piano in her house, and she disdained to join in.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
How does a young woman go from disdaining weapons to designing them?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 7, 2025
Others, disdaining the election, said they had skipped voting altogether.
From New York Times ● Dec. 12, 2023
Stutzman, who was widely quoted during the 2016 campaign disdaining the GOP front-runner, recalls spotting Bera that year at a French restaurant in downtown Sacramento.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 2, 2023
But China remains hunkered down in its own nuclear bunker, disdaining U.S. invitations to discuss strategic stability.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 25, 2023
He growled and muttered and then lay down on his side, his eyes closed, as if disdaining his tormentors.
From "Tiger, Tiger" by Lynne Reid Banks
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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.
