Word Finder - contempt

definition

The state or act of contemning; the feeling or attitude of regarding someone or something as inferior, base, or worthless; scorn, disdain.

definition

The state of being despised or dishonored; disgrace.

definition

Open disrespect or willful disobedience of the authority of a court of law or legislative body.

He will be charged with contempt of court.

We were prepared for contempt proceedings at any of the hearings.

Her partiality for him increased as her contempt and hatred of Darnley became more confirmed.

They held a contempt for politicians.

He was a stuntman; but, he held a contempt of danger.

The hatred and contempt of the crowd punish such men for discerning the higher laws.

The contempt of aesthetics and erudition is characteristic of the most typical members of what is known as the Cartesian school, especially Malebranche.

In his contempt for the rulers of Spain he forgot the Spanish people.

Bligh was still less visible to the men, not present in a "familiarity breeds contempt" sense.

He was unpleasantly struck, too, by the excessive contempt for others that he observed in Speranski, and by the diversity of lines of argument he used to support his opinions.

Contempt for democracy is an accurate description.

At the domestic level, Manchester United treat the FA, which presides over the national game, with barely concealed contempt.

Anticipation that the failure of the Petersburg Berezina plan would be attributed to Kutuzov led to dissatisfaction, contempt, and ridicule, more and more strongly expressed.

Received at first in the ranks of the philosophes, he soon went over to their opponents, possibly more from contempt than from conviction, the immediate occasion for his change being a quarrel with d'Alembert in 1762.

His father died when he was three, his mother when he was only seven, and he grew up in a brutal and degrading environment where he learnt to hold human life and human dignity in contempt.

Though perfectly free from any trace of envy or ill-will, he yet showed on fit occasion his contempt for that pseudo-science which seeks for the applause of the ignorant by professing to reduce the whole system of the universe to a fortuitous sequence of uncaused events.

Tone, who accompanied it as "Adjutant-general Smith," had the greatest contempt for the seamanship of the French sailors, which was amply justified by the disastrous result of the invasion.

Phelan disobeyed the injunction and on the 13th of July 1894 was sentenced to jail for six months for contempt.

For history, applied mathematics - for anything, in fact, outside the exact sciences - he felt something approaching to contempt.

His father was reserved, undemonstrative even to the pitch of chilling sternness, and among young Mill's comrades contempt of feeling was almost a watchword.

She also provoked a dangerous enemy in John Knox by her expressed contempt for a letter which he had written to her, but the first revolt against her authority arose from an attempt to establish a standing army.

As for the "treason" of General York, who had come to terms with the Russians, it moved him merely to scorn and contempt.

He knew that love of novelty and contempt for the gouty old king and his greedy courtiers had brought about this bloodless triumph; and he felt instinctively that he had to deal with a new France, which would not tolerate despotism.

His brilliant parts were somewhat obscured by his rather erratic conduct, and a certain contempt, partly aristocratic and partly intellectual, for commonplace men and ways.

This burlesquing of things universally held sacred, though condemned by serious-minded theologians, conveyed to the child-like popular mind of the middle ages no suggestion of contempt, though when belief in the doctrines and rites of the medieval Church was shaken it became a ready instrument in the hands of those who sought to destroy them.

His attitude is one not of bitterness but of calm hopelessness, with an occasional tinge of disgust or contempt.

The Lord's Day Act 1656 also enacted penalties against any one disturbing the service, but apart from statute many Friends were imprisoned for open contempt of ministers and magistrates.

At the Restoration 700 Friends, imprisoned for contempt and some minor offences, were set at liberty.

But, whilst condemning harshness towards them, he encourages the feeling of contempt for them as a class.

He condemned and deposed Acacius, a proceeding which the latter regarded with contempt, but which involved a breach between the two sees that lasted after Acacius's death (489), through the long and troubled reign of Anastasius, and was only healed by Justin I.

The quarrels of these monks might have been left to the contempt they deserved, had not Napoleon III.

By taking into his personal service a body of Alani, and appearing in public in the dress of a Scythian warrior, he aroused the contempt and resentment of his Roman troops.

Eachard attributed the contempt into which the clergy had fallen to their imperfect education, their insufficient incomes, and the want of a true vocation.

Richard Cromwell was treated with general contempt by his contemporaries, and invidiously compared with his great father.

His lyrism is vigorous, feeling, austere and almost entirely subjective and personal, while his pamphlets are distinguished by energy of conviction, strength of affirmation, and contempt for weaker and more ignorant opponents.

The Washington government had indeed no cause to be well disposed to Castro, for he treated the interests of Americans in Venezuela with the same highhanded contempt for honesty and justice as those of Europeans.

The new practice was received at first with contempt and even ridicule, and afterwards by Stoll and Peter Frank with only grudging approval.

But he was not a thoroughly skilful courtier, and one of the best known of Voltairiana is the contempt or at least silence with which Louis XV.

Disastrous campaigns against the Bulgarians and Arabs afforded her an opportunity of rousing the contempt and hatred of the people against their ruler.

He was an artist of eccentric originality, who achieved wonders in bold decorative effects in spite of a studied contempt for detail.

The Spaniards of that day, excited by the hope of rapidly acquired wealth and the love of adventure, embarked tipon a career of discovery, and agriculture and manufacturing industry fell into contempt.

At first he treated the novel phenomenon with contempt, and thought it sufficient to send his less prominent generals against the rebels.

They do not keep the Hindu festivals and they defy the contempt of the Brahmans.

Such was Gregory the Great's teaching, and such also is the purport of the Caroline books, which embody the conclusions arrived at by the bishops of Germany, Gaul arid Aquitaine, presided over by papal legates at the council of Frankfort in 794, and incidentally also reveal the hatred and contempt of Charlemagne for the Byzantine empire as an institution, and for Irene, its ruler, as a person.

Their arrogant contempt for our opinion is a national disgrace.

Nature fears shame and contempt, but grace is happy to suffer reproach.

Was there tacit acknowledgment of the claims made by, or mere contempt for, the authors?

No-one can hate a Brummie as the accent renders contempt impossible.

Failure to obey an injunction could result in proceedings for contempt of court.

Failure to obey a court injunction may result in proceedings for contempt of court.