scorn

[ skawrn ]
See synonyms for scorn on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. open or unqualified contempt; disdain: His face and attitude showed the scorn he felt.

  2. an object of derision or contempt.

  1. a derisive or contemptuous action or speech.

verb (used with object)
  1. to treat or regard with contempt or disdain: They scorned the old beggar.

  2. to reject, refuse, or ignore with contempt or disdain: She scorned my help.

verb (used without object)
  1. to mock; jeer.

Idioms about scorn

  1. laugh to scorn, to ridicule; deride: Many of his sophisticated listeners laughed him to scorn.

Origin of scorn

1
First recorded in 1150–1200; (noun) Middle English scorn, scarn, from Old French escarn, from Germanic (compare obsolete Dutch schern “mockery, trickery”); (verb) Middle English skarnen, sc(h)ornen, from Old French escharnir, eschernir, ultimately from Germanic

synonym study For scorn

1. See contempt.

Other words for scorn

Opposites for scorn

Other words from scorn

  • scorn·er, noun
  • scorn·ing·ly, adverb
  • out·scorn, verb (used with object)
  • self-scorn, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use scorn in a sentence

  • Rosie, 17, scorns her mother because of her addiction, yet blithely dabbles in booze, drugs, and sex.

    This Week's Hot Reads | The Daily Beast | April 16, 2010 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • She belonged to that ultra-modern school which scorns to sue masculine admiration, but which cannot dispense with it nevertheless.

    Dope | Sax Rohmer
  • Or was it rather the noble error of one, who, with his mind fixed on the highest, scorns the high?

    The Life of Mazzini | Bolton King
  • But a young man once climbed up there to carve his name above Washington's, an act of presumption for which every one scorns him.

    The Story of the Thirteen Colonies | H. A. (Hlne Adeline) Guerber
  • Nature, fresh from the hand of Deity, scorns the too prying gaze and the too shallow judgment of finite but presumptuous man.

    The Sea | Jules Michelet

British Dictionary definitions for scorn

scorn

/ (skɔːn) /


noun
  1. open contempt or disdain for a person or thing; derision

  2. an object of contempt or derision

  1. archaic an act or expression signifying contempt

verb
  1. to treat with contempt or derision

  2. (tr) to reject with contempt

Origin of scorn

1
C12 schornen, from Old French escharnir, of Germanic origin; compare Old High German scerōn to behave rowdily, obsolete Dutch schern mockery

Derived forms of scorn

  • scorner, noun
  • scornful, adjective
  • scornfully, adverb
  • scornfulness, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012