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Scorn vs Contemptuous - What's the difference?

scorn | contemptuous |

As a verb scorn

is to feel or display contempt or disdain for something or somebody; to despise.

As a noun scorn

is (uncountable) contempt or disdain.

As an adjective contemptuous is

showing contempt; expressing disdain; showing a lack of respect.

scorn

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To feel or display contempt or disdain for something or somebody; to despise.
  • * C. J. Smith
  • We scorn what is in itself contemptible or disgraceful.
  • To scoff, express contempt.
  • To reject, turn down
  • He scorned her romantic advances.
  • To refuse to do something, as beneath oneself.
  • She scorned to show weakness.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Noun

  • (uncountable) Contempt or disdain.
  • (countable) A display of disdain; a slight.
  • * Dryden
  • Every sullen frown and bitter scorn / But fanned the fuel that too fast did burn.
  • (countable) An object of disdain, contempt, or derision.
  • * Bible, Psalms xliv. 13
  • Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.

    Usage notes

    * Scorn'' is often used in the phrases ''pour scorn on'' and ''heap scorn on .

    Quotations

    * circa 1605': The cry is still 'They come': our castle's strength / Will laugh a siege to '''scorn — '' * 1967', Rain of tears, real, mist of imagined '''scorn — John Berryman, ''Berryman's Sonnets . New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * scornful

    Anagrams

    *

    contemptuous

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Showing contempt; expressing disdain; showing a lack of respect.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers)
  • , chapter=5, title= A Cuckoo in the Nest , passage=The most rapid and most seductive transition in all human nature is that which attends the palliation of a ravenous appetite.

    Derived terms

    * contemptuously