Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Disgrace arising from exceedingly shameful conduct; ignominy.
  • noun Scornful reproach or contempt.
  • noun Archaic A cause of shame or disgrace.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Imputation of shameful conduct; insulting reproach; contumely; scurrility.
  • noun Disgrace; infamy.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A state of disgrace; infamy; reproach mingled with contempt; odium{3}.
  • noun Abusive language.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Disgrace arising from exceedingly shameful conduct; ignominy.
  • noun Scornful reproach or contempt
  • noun A cause of shame or disgrace.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun state of disgrace resulting from public abuse
  • noun a state of extreme dishonor

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin, from opprobrāre, to reproach : ob-, against; see ob– + probrum, reproach; see bher- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

First attested 1656, from Latin opprōbrium ("reproach, disgrace"), from opprōbrō ("reproach, taunt"), from ob ("against") + probrum ("disgrace, dishonor").

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Examples

  • Unless we simply presume a priori that Israelis are evil, I really do not see why the Israelis would want to provoke an attack so that they could kill a handful of passengers and suffer further opprobrium from the rest of the world.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Greenwald and Gaza 2010

  • The two professors who started all this complained in their op-ed that "George Mason University received over $23 million from Koch brothers foundations to hire seven libertarian professors," as though "libertarian" were a term of opprobrium.

    Professors to Koch Brothers: Take Your Green Back Donald Luskin 2011

  • Of course, most transgenerational obligations run the other way -- from parents to children -- and of these the most obvious candidate for opprobrium is our wasteful attitude toward the planet's natural resources and ecology.

    What will future generations condemn us for? Kwame Anthony Appiah 2010

  • That if worse things mean the opprobrium is excessive, then things less bad — many of which involve talk – mean the opprobrium is too low.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Indictment for Chat Room Posts Urging Particular People to Commit Suicide 2010

  • Rather than rain opprobrium on the "inexperienced bicyclists" perhaps it can be stated that there were just too many cyclists.

    Sunday Parkways: not really a pedestrian thing (Jack Bog's Blog) 2009

  • Whether in a newspaper essay or the mouth of Betsy King, “antifederalist” was a term of opprobrium.

    Ratification Pauline Maier 2010

  • Whether in a newspaper essay or the mouth of Betsy King, “antifederalist” was a term of opprobrium.

    Ratification Pauline Maier 2010

  • Whether in a newspaper essay or the mouth of Betsy King, “antifederalist” was a term of opprobrium.

    Ratification Pauline Maier 2010

  • Is this not a big signal to HRC funders: Penn sees HRC's race as sufficiently doomed that it makes sense to him now, net/net, to risk this near-term opprobrium in order to assure future Burson Marsteller business?

    Report: Mark Penn Met With Colombian Ambassador To Talk Trade 2009

  • The effect of the rehash is to make those who believed in – or claimed to believe in – the forgeries look perhaps marginally less stupid and to shift some of the opprobrium from the Italian authorities to Niger Embassy staff.

    Firedoglake » Judge Rules in Libby Case and Other Matters 2006

Comments

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  • "Some of the opprobrium and sense of embarrassment that would forever after attach itself to the comic book form was due to the way it at first inevitably suffered, event at its best, by comparison with the mannered splendor of Burne Hogarth, Alex Raymond, Hal Foster, and the other kings of funny page draftsmanship..."

    "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay", Michael Chabon, p75

    August 10, 2007

  • "The Actor's Opprobrium," The Sunlandic Twins Bonus EP

    November 22, 2007

  • Disgrace arising from exceedingly shameful conduct; ignominy.

    Scornful reproach or contempt: a term of opprobrium.

    A cause of shame or disgrace.

    February 20, 2009

  • My anger has a causal relationship with the opprobrium resulting from the daily altercations with my neighbour

    July 21, 2013

  • "Now is the time to speak up and to wear as a badge of honor the opprobrium of bigots."

    Now Is The Time To Talk About What We Are Actually Talking About, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The New Yorker, December 2, 2016. http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/now-is-the-time-to-talk-about-what-we-are-actually-talking-about.

    December 7, 2016