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despise Definition

de·spise (di spīz′)

transitive verb despised -·spised′, despising -·spis′·ing

  1. to look down on with contempt and scorn
  2. to regard with dislike or repugnance

Etymology: ME despisen < OFr despis-, stem of despirer < L despicere, to look down upon, despise < de, down, from + specere, to look at: see spectacle

despise Synonyms

despise

v.

scorn, disdain, contemn, hate, look down on, look down upon, spurn, sneer at, flout, dislike, loathe, detest, abhor; see also hate 1.

despise implies a strong emotional response toward that which one looks down upon with contempt or aversion to despise a hypocrite; to scorn is to feel indignation toward or deep contempt for, often with the implication of rejection or refusal to scorn the offer of a bribe; disdain implies a haughty or arrogant contempt for what one considers beneath one's dignity to disdain flattery; contemn, chiefly a literary word, implies a vehement disapproval of a person or thing as base, vile, or despicable See also syn. study at hate.

despise Usage Examples

Object

  • prophesyings: The, very word, " despise not prophesyings, " may shew to what it leads.
  • everything: If Polly Toynbee and Harold Pinter despise everything we stand for that is a GOOD sign.
  • gift: Should I despise the great gift offered me in the eloquent silence of her eyes?

Adjective complement

  • most: In fact, it looks like he despises most of these subjects.

Modifying Another Word

  • truly: These women did truly despise the pontifical quality of woman.

Used with why or when

  • what: How apt then to despise what we have not!

Present participle complement

  • drive: I particularly despise driving on hot, blue-sky days, because the sheer level of wank on the roads increases by orders of magnitude.
despise Quotes

Odi profanum vulgus et arceo; Favete linguis; carmina non prius Audita Musarum sacerdos Virginibus puerisque canto. I despise the uninitiated mob and I warn them off: keep your tongues well-omened; I, priest of the Muses, am singing songs, never heard before, to girls and boys.

—Horace full name  Quintus Horatius Flaccus   65

Try notto despise yourselftoomuchöit's onlya conceit.

—Kavanagh, P(atrick) J(oseph Gregory)

I work for a government I despise for ends I think criminal.

—Keynes (of Tilton),John Maynard, 1st Baron

   Why does my Muse only speak when she is unhappy? She does not, I only listen when I am unhappy When I am happy I live and despise writing For my Muse this cannot but be dispiriting.

—Smith, Stevie (Florence Margaret)

Il y a dans les hommes plus de choses a'   admirer que de choses a'   me¤  priser. There are more things to admire in people than to despise.

—Camus, Albert

Now the Lord saith,Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.

—Bible (Old Testament)

The dupe of friendship, and the fool of love; have I not reason to hate and to despise myself? Indeed I do; and chiefly for not having hated and despised the world enough.

—Hazlitt,William