Contempt vs Insult - What's the difference?
contempt | insult | Related terms |
(uncountable) The state of contemning; the feeling or attitude of regarding someone or something as inferior, base, or worthless; scorn, disdain.
* , chapter=13
, title= The state of being despised or dishonored; disgrace.
(legal) Open disrespect or willful disobedience of the authority of a court of law or legislative body.
(obsolete) To behave in an obnoxious and superior manner (over, against).
*, II.3.3:
To offend (someone) by being rude, insensitive or insolent; to demean or affront (someone).
(obsolete) To leap or trample upon; to make a sudden onset upon.
An action or form of speech deliberately intended to be rude.
* Savage
* 1987 , Jamie Lee Curtis, A Fish Called Wanda :
Anything that causes offence/offense, e.g. by being of an unacceptable quality.
(medicine) Something causing disease or injury to the body or bodily processes.
* 2006 , Stephen G. Lomber, Jos J. Eggermont, Reprogramming the Cerebral Cortex (page 415)
* 2011 , Terence Allen and Graham Cowling, The Cell: A Very Short Introduction , Oxford 2011, p. 96:
(obsolete) The act of leaping on; onset; attack.
As nouns the difference between contempt and insult
is that contempt is the state of contemning; the feeling or attitude of regarding someone or something as inferior, base, or worthless; scorn, disdain while insult is an action or form of speech deliberately intended to be rude.As a verb insult is
to behave in an obnoxious and superior manner (over, against).contempt
English
(wikipedia contempt)Alternative forms
* (obsolete) * (obsolete)Noun
(en noun)The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes. He said that if you wanted to do anything for them, you must rule them, not pamper them.}}
Synonyms
* SeeAntonyms
* SeeDerived terms
* contemptible * contempt of Congress * contempt of court * contempt of Parliament * contemptuous * familiarity breeds contemptExternal links
* * *insult
English
Verb
(en verb)- thou hast lost all, poor thou art, dejected, in pain of body, grief of mind, thine enemies insult over thee, thou art as bad as Job […].
- (Shakespeare)
Synonyms
* (to offend) abuse, affront, offend, slight * See alsoAntonyms
*complimentNoun
(en noun)- the ruthless sneer that insult adds to grief
- To call you stupid would be an insult to stupid people!
- The way the orchestra performed tonight was an insult to my ears.
- Within the complex genome of most organisms there are alternative multiple pathways of proteins which can help the individual cell survive a variety of insults , for example radiation, toxic chemicals, heat, excessive or reduced oxygen.
- (Dryden)