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
You admire, but while you admire you wonder, you reprobate, you contemn.
From French Classics by William Cleaver Wilkinson
Of course there is no harm in that, Especially As you get the ha'pennies, And far be it from me To contemn you for it.
From Outlook Odes by T. W. H. (Thomas William Hodgson) Crosland
Then why must I, Who had in me a hope That rivalled Raphael's or Leonardo's, Keep, cozened so, that I contemn her shame?
From The Immortal Lure by Cale Young Rice
I hope not; for then those who contemn it must do the same by the vaunted Rose, and the rich Carnation; for where do they blow better than in the daisy-bordered flower-beds of the poor?
From Mirror of the Months by Peter George Patmore
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
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.
