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Spurn vs Contemptuous - What's the difference?

spurn | contemptuous |

As a verb spurn

is (ambitransitive) to reject disdainfully; contemn; scorn.

As a noun spurn

is an act of spurning; a scornful rejection.

As an adjective contemptuous is

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

spurn

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • (ambitransitive) To reject disdainfully; contemn; scorn.
  • * Shakespeare
    • to spurn at your most royal image
  • * Shakespeare
    • What safe and nicely I might well delay / By rule of knighthood, I disdain and spurn .
  • * John Locke
    • Domestics will pay a more cheerful service when they find themselves not spurned because fortune has laid them at their master's feet.
  • To reject something by pushing it away with the foot.
  • * Shakespeare
    • I spurn thee like a cur out of my way.
  • To waste; fail to make the most of (an opportunity)
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=September 28 , author=Tom Rostance , title=Arsenal 2 - 1 Olympiakos , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Marouane Chamakh then spurned a great chance to kill the game off when he ran onto Andrey Arshavin's lofted through ball but shanked his shot horribly across the face of goal.}}
  • (obsolete) To kick or toss up the heels.
  • * Chaucer
    • The miller spurned at a stone.
  • * Gay
    • The drunken chairman in the kennel spurns .

    Derived terms

    * spurner

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An act of spurning; a scornful rejection.
  • A kick; a blow with the foot.
  • * Milton
    • What defence can properly be used in such a despicable encounter as this but either the slap or the spurn ?
  • (obsolete) Disdainful rejection; contemptuous treatment.
  • * Shakespeare
    • The insolence of office and the spurns / That patient merit of the unworthy takes.
  • A body of coal left to sustain an overhanging mass.

    • 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

    Related terms

    * contempt