contemn
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of contemn
1375–1425; late Middle English contempnen (< Middle French ) < Latin contemnere to despise, scorn, equivalent to con- con- + temnere to slight; see contempt
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.
"Did not William Blake contemn reason and paint the ghost of a flea?"
From Time Magazine Archive
As Æneas says, “Capistrano had despised the pomps of the world, he had fled from its delights, he had trampled down avarice, he had overcome lust, but he could not contemn glory.”
From A History of The Inquisition of The Middle Ages; volume II by Henry Charles Lea
It was the sort of thing that in ordinary dealing we denounce and even contemn, as the effort of unsolicited pretension to thrust itself against barred gates with immodest vigor.
From An Ambitious Woman A Novel by Edgar Fawcett
When we stand upon life's brink we can afford to contemn the foolish lapping of the waves.
From My Lords of Strogue Vol. III, (of III) A Chronicle of Ireland, from the Convention to the Union by Lewis Wingfield
I would fain have persuaded him that it was a wild scheme; but he was a soldier, gentlemen, and accustomed to contemn all dangers.
From The Gipsy (Vols I & II) A Tale by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James
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.
