noun
definition
Offensive and abusive language or behaviour; scorn, insult.
Examples of contumely in a Sentence
It provided punishments up to 20 years' imprisonment for anyone who published " any language intended to bring the form of Government of the United States or the Constitution into contempt, scorn, contumely and disrepute."
These lectures Schopenhauer attended - at first, it is allowed, with interest, but afterwards with a spirit of opposition which is said to have degenerated into contempt, and which in after years never permitted him to refer to Fichte without contumely.
This counsel was rejected, and in October 1565 the queen marched an army of i 8,000 men against them from Edinburgh; their forces dispersed in face of superior numbers, and Murray, on seeking shelter in England, was received with contumely by Elizabeth, whose half-hearted help had failed to support his enterprise, and whose intercession for his return found at first no favour with the queen of Scots.
The body of Formosus was disinterred in 897 by Stephen VI., and treated with contumely as that of a usurper of the papal throne; but Theodore II.