Jump To:

• Familiarity breeds contempt
  Familiarity breeds contempt

  The better we know people, the more likely we are to find fault with them.
• familiarity breeds contempt
  familiarity breeds contempt

  Long experience of someone or something can make one so aware of the faults as to be scornful. For example, Ten years at the same job and now he hates it—familiarity breeds contempt. The idea is much older, but the first recorded use of this expression was in Chaucer's Tale of Melibee (c. 1386).

Familiarity breeds contempt

Cultural  

1. The better we know people, the more likely we are to find fault with them.

---

familiarity breeds contempt Idioms  

1. Long experience of someone or something can make one so aware of the faults as to be scornful. For example, Ten years at the same job and now he hates it—familiarity breeds contempt. The idea is much older, but the first recorded use of this expression was in Chaucer's Tale of Melibee (c. 1386).

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Familiarity breeds contempt familiarity breeds contempt

Familiarity breeds contempt, but no one argues with each other like family.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2021

Familiarity breeds contempt, and so it makes sense that the reviled Blue Devils squads of yore were packed with four-year players like Christian Laettner and Shelden Williams.

From Slate ● Mar. 20, 2019

"Familiarity breeds contempt – that's a good way of saying it," Haynie says.

From US News ● Oct. 4, 2016

Familiarity breeds contempt, and he feels that he himself ought really to be a millionaire.

From Over Here Impressions of America by a British officer by Hector MacQuarrie

With me, as with most, something of the feeling implied in the adage, "Familiarity breeds contempt," had impaired my faith in the practical efficacy of prayer.

From The Cold Snap 1898 by Edward Bellamy

They say that familiarity breeds contempt, but that’s only half the story.

From Salon ● Dec. 14, 2025

Whether or not familiarity breeds contempt is a matter of opinion, yet a change can be as good as a rest, and this tournament is certainly different to the grind through India last autumn.

From BBC ● May 31, 2024

While familiarity breeds contempt on the ice among opponents, it’s having the reverse effect for the men in stripes.

From Washington Times ● Feb. 10, 2021

There's no denying the history or the success or the cleft chins, but familiarity breeds contempt and NFL fans are all very familiar with the perpetual, prohibitive favorite Patriots.

From Golf Digest ● Jan. 29, 2018

There is, however, nothing on earth to prevent your becoming the gentleman I wish to see you, and remember to write ineffaceably on the tablets of your memory, 'Too much familiarity breeds contempt.'

From The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton Volume I by Mrs. Russell Barrington

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---