Scorn vs Sneer - What's the difference?

In transitive terms the difference between scorn and sneer

is that scorn is to refuse to do something, as beneath oneself while sneer is to utter with a grimace or contemptuous expression; to say sneeringly.

In intransitive terms the difference between scorn and sneer

is that scorn is to scoff, express contempt while sneer is to raise a corner of the upper lip slightly, especially in scorn.

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

sneer

English

Verb

(en verb)

To raise a corner of the upper lip slightly, especially in scorn

To utter with a grimace or contemptuous expression; to say sneeringly.

to sneer fulsome lies at a person

Noun

(en noun)

A facial expression where one slightly raises one corner of the upper lip, generally indicating scorn.

A display of contempt; scorn.

* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)

, chapter=8 citation , passage=It was a casual sneer , obviously one of a long line. There was hatred behind it, but of a quiet, chronic type, nothing new or unduly virulent, and he was taken aback by the flicker of amazed incredulity that passed over the younger man's ravaged face.}}

Anagrams

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