disdainfully

American  

[dis-deyn-fuh-lee] / dɪsˈdeɪn fə li /

adverb

1. in a way that shows contempt or scorn.

   Once disdainfully regarded as mosquito-infested swamps, wetlands today are appreciated for providing critical wildlife habitat, assisting with water purification, and helping to store water during storms and floods.

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Etymology

Origin of disdainfully

disdainful ( def. ) + -ly

Explanation

When you do something disdainfully, you do it with disapproval or contempt. You might look disdainfully at an airplane passenger who's yelling at his young son. When you act disdainfully toward someone, you're expressing your lack of respect — either for the person himself, or what he's doing. If your grandmother disapproves of just about everyone she meets, she'll probably glance disdainfully at your friends when they show up in their loud car to pick you up. The Old French root of disdainfully is desdeignier, "scorn, refuse, or repudiate," from des, "do the opposite of," and deignier, "treat with respect."

Example Sentences

"Some of them are really awful," he says disdainfully of previous efforts.

From BBC • Mar. 23, 2024

Simberg also referred disdainfully to a 2011 investigation by the National Science Foundation’s inspector general, which exonerated Mann, writing that it relied on information from Penn State and therefore was “not truly independent.”

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 13, 2024

Pink remains associated with femininity to this day—but in recent decades, groups once disdainfully branded with the color have made moves to reclaim it.

From National Geographic • Jul. 21, 2023

He talked disdainfully about the “Twitter-tweet-meme-mean world that we’ve created” and said we’d better do our best to “turn this thing around” for young people.

From New York Times • Dec. 4, 2021

“You are hardly the first student to covet the diadem,” she said disdainfully.

From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling

Related Words

• skeptically
• suspiciously