scornful Hear it!

scornful Definition

scorn·ful (skôrnfəl)

adjective

filled with or showing scorn or contempt

scornful Related Forms
scorn·fully adverb scorn·ful·ness noun
scornful Synonyms

scornful

modif.

  1. Given to scorning

    contemptuous, disdainful, haughty, supercilious, overbearing, arrogant, insolent, cynical, sneering, hypercritical, with the nose in the air*, toplofty*, snooty*; see also egotistic 2.

    Antonyms respectful*, admiring, gracious.

  2. Characterized by scorn

    derisive, opprobrious, contumelious, scurrilous, abusive, insulting, offensive, rude, sarcastic, malicious, jeering, mocking, sneering, ironical.

    Antonyms polite*, respectful, flattering.

scornful Usage Examples

Modifies a noun

  • laughter: By no means should we make others the object of derision and scornful laughter.
  • tone: He switches to a scornful tone, which I think at first may just be the way he expresses enthusiasm.
  • attitude: George had become an enthusiastic member of this group despite his previous rather scornful attitude to what he called " they statistic merchants " .
  • eye: In letting me through the trout fishers usually cast a scornful eye at me as a salmon toff.
  • word: Sound carries easily on the still moorland air which is why the little folk heard every scornful word that Mabel had just uttered.
  • look: The most annoying aspect of Disco Queen's personality is that she seems impervious to both cold and scornful looks from women like you.

Modifying Another Word

  • rather: George had become an enthusiastic member of this group despite his previous rather scornful attitude to what he called " they statistic merchants " .
  • so: If he had been he mightn't have been quite so scornful about ghosts in machines.
  • very: Discuss Originally they were very scornful of Wales, keeping the flags off their amps until it had already become cool to be Welsh.
  • equally: The CPGB was equally scornful of the proposition that the ILP would rapidly become the instrument of socialist change.
  • apparently: Perhaps he gets his reward from these apparently scornful ones after all is over; he certainly does not get it during the operation.
  • totally: She is totally scornful of Blair's claim on television that he told the truth.

Used with adjective complement

  • look: Esajas looks scornful as he waits to run his leg.
scornful Quotes

Comedy is an imitation of the common errors of our life, which he representeth in the most ridiculous and scornful sort that may be, so as it is impossible that any beholder can be content to be such a one.

—Sidney, Sir Philip

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.But his delight is in the law of the L; and in his law doth he meditate dayand night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in hisseason; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodlyare not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

—Bible (Old Testament)

Browse dictionary entries near scornful

  1. scorn
  2. scorify
  3. scoria
  4. scoreless
  5. scorekeeper
  6. scoreboard
  7. score card
  8. score
  9. scorching
  10. scorcher
  1. scornfully
  2. scorpaenid
  3. Scorpio
  4. scorpioid
  5. scorpion
  6. scorpion fly
  7. scorpionfish
  8. Scorpius
  9. scot
  10. scot-free