deride
Americanverb (used with object)
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derides,
present (3rd person singular)
-
derided,
past participle, past
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deriding
present participle
verb
Synonym Usage
See ridicule.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
deridesimple
-
deridessimple
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have deridedperfect
-
has deridedperfect
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am deridingprogressive
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are deridingprogressive
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is deridingprogressive
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have been deridingperfect progressive
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has been deridingperfect progressive
Past
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deridedsimple
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had deridedperfect
-
was deridingprogressive
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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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Dubliners
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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:
Emilia, by contrast, is a strikingly modern figure in her cynical assessments of the hypocrisy of a culture that will deride women for sexual behavior that wouldn’t be censured in men.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 1, 2026
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
Today many on the right still deride the Carter years but as the decades passed, his humanitarian efforts and simple lifestyle began to shape a new legacy for many Americans.
From BBC ● Dec. 29, 2024
OK, you get up there, they're going to rap each other off and they're supposed to deride and blast each other.
From Salon ● May 18, 2024
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
It’s only when Christian near the end of the play derides Cyrano’s “acres of highbrow wet dream prose” that Cyrano’s ears prick up in admiration.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2024
If you fail, an indignant populace derides your name, and a pained and astonished government claps you into jail.
From The Mistress of Shenstone by Florence L. (Florence Louisa) Barclay
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
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
The vote was widely derided by democracy monitors abroad, but China supports it as recreating a semblance of normality, analysts say.
From Barron's ● Jul. 10, 2026
Many on Wall Street have long derided the retail crowd as “dumb money” — a reputation largely earned during the dot-com bubble, and reinforced during the 2021 meme-stock frenzy.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 1, 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
He was on “Larry King Live” two months later, deriding his detractors.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026
That is exactly what happened this week in an Irish podcast involving former international Andrew Trimble and Hollywood actor Jamie Dornan, with the pair deriding Welsh rugby.
From BBC ● Mar. 6, 2026
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
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
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.
