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disdain Definition

dis·dain (dis dān′)

transitive verb

to regard or treat as unworthy or beneath one's dignity; specif., to refuse or reject with aloof contempt or scorn

Etymology: ME disdeinen < OFr desdaignier < VL *disdignare, for LL dedignare < L dedignari < dis-, dis- + dignari: see deign

noun

the feeling, attitude, or expression of disdaining; aloof contempt or scorn

disdain Synonyms

disdain

n.

scorn, haughtiness, contempt; see arrogance, hatred 1.

disdain Synonyms

disdain

v.

reject, scorn, despise, ignore; see despise, hate 1, refuse. See syn. study at despise.

disdain Usage Examples

Object

  • advice: I particularly like RH's point: " let it teach them not to disdain the advice of their presbyters " .

Converse of object

  • express: She expressed disdain at the adulation the industry gives to beauty over talent, blaming it on the influence of the Academy Awards.
  • show: To show the ultimate disdain for singers, have the chorus stand for the first three movements of Beethoven's 9th.
  • have: We must also have enough disdain for all things outside us, to make us, on due occasion, spit at the stars.
  • demonstrate: For this reason, in combination with his demonstrated disdain of detail, Gildas did not record this fact.

Adjective modifier

  • lofty: To my surprise, Deirdre's smile was no longer one of lofty disdain.
  • utter: My body language, the shaking head and expression of utter disdain, may have betrayed my thoughts.
  • apparent: Faced with the current government's apparent disdain for judicial process you might think this perhaps not such a bad thing.
  • cold: He described her as radiating ' cold disdain ' after he arrived for her audition 25 minutes late.
  • total: He sat for a second, then looked at me with total disdain.
  • such: Does he REALLY hold us all in such disdain?

Modifying Another Word

  • even: In such a situation there is no place for hate or anger nor even disdain.
  • n't: The monstrousness of this demagogic nonsense is immediately apparent, and yet even the left does n't disdain resorting to it.

Noun used with modifier

  • I: I have no need for friendship, friendship causes pain, Its laughter and its loving I disdain.

Used with why or when

  • what: She does not disdain what is transient, which is only in the present.

Infinitive complement

  • use: Let me quote the relevant verse in full: God disdains not to use the analogy of things, lowest as well as highest.

Preposition: for

  • people: It embodies an almost aristocratic disdain for ordinary people who want to raise their living standards.
  • culture: Intellectual disdain for mass culture on the part of Cultural Studies progenitors was overthrown in favor of a positive affirmation of mass culture.
  • democracy: It means explaining why the suppression of women and the disdain for democracy are wrong.
  • law: Although Prohibition did greatly reduce overall alcohol consumption, the result was widespread disdain for the law.
disdain Quotes

Let it not be said of this Atlantic generation that we left ideals and visions to the past, nor purpose and determination to our adversaries.We have come too far, we have sacrificed too much to disdain the future now.

—Kennedy,John F(itzgerald)

In time the savage bull sustains the yoke; In time all haggard hawks will stoop to lure; In time small wedges cleave the hardest oak, In time the flint is pierced with softest shower, And she in time will fall from her disdain, And rue the sufferance of your friendly pain.

—Kyd,Thomas

Her melancholy seems to be fortified With a strange disdain.

—Webster,John

Wyatt resteth here, that quick could never rest; Whose heavenly gifts increased by disdain, And virtue sank the deeper in his breast; Such profit he of envy could obtain.

—Surrey, Henry Howard, Earl of

A little disdain is not amiss; a little scorn is alluring.

—Congreve,William

Give me more love or more disdain; The torrid or the frozen zone: Bring equal ease unto my pain; The temperate affords me none.

—Carew,Thomas