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

See Examples For:

disdainfully

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

From BBC ● Mar. 23, 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

But the Rams were mistake-prone for a second straight game and treated disdainfully by the San Francisco 49ers, who bulldozed their way to a 31-10 triumph at Levi’s Stadium.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 15, 2021

“All I need be here,” she had told Kira, speaking disdainfully of the village and its noisy life.

From "Gathering Blue" by Lois Lowry

Related Words

• skeptically
• suspiciously