Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To regard with contempt or scorn.
- transitive verb To dislike intensely; loathe.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To look down upon; contemn; scorn; disdain.
- To reject; throw away.
- To look upon; contemplate.
- Synonyms Contemn, Disdain, etc. See
scorn .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To look down upon with disfavor or contempt; to contemn; to scorn; to disdain; to have a low opinion or contemptuous dislike of.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To regard with
contempt orscorn .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb look down on with disdain
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Christmas Retail. and the 'plastic crap' you despise is possibly less offensive than the really costly items that media informs young minds they could should would expect.
decking the halls Another Outspoken Female 2009
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Because of this, the impetus to engage in violent fantasy, even of those whom we most righteously despise, is not something to be encouraged.
Movie Reviews: Whiteout the Inglourious Lying | Heretical Ideas Magazine 2009
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But what I really despise is an acronym that I only recently encountered, “RoVA.”
Waldo Jaquith - Why the Democratic majority cannot dominate. 2007
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Badawin despise all half-breeds (Arab sires and country mares),
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Well I'd like to think this new Canada you despise is still Juno Beach-capable, without being Chinese Exclusion Act-capable.
worse than china? 2005
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People throw around the word despise when it comes to him.
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But what I despise is the disingenuous politician who uses the war as a partisan front for his or his party’s own agenda.
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But what I despise is the disingenuous politician who uses the war as a partisan front for his or his party’s own agenda.
Support The Troops, The Duality Of Man « Unambiguously Ambidextrous 2008
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The pluralism they so despise, which is vital to the success of diverse, contemporary societies, is particularly vulnerable in the age of terror.
Alexander Downer - Speech to launch the White Paper on International Terrorism 2004
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And so continually flying forth and returning, it weaves endless bonds between the infinitesimal and the infinite, forgetting how to despise, which is the heavenly science.
Apologia Diffidentis 1905
jwjarvis commented on the word despise
We tend to think of the word despise as being synonymous with hate rather than as an attitude in which something is regarded as of negligible importance. Moreover, to despise also means to hold oneself above that which is unworthy.
February 16, 2011