Scorn
WordNet
noun
(1) Open disrespect for a person or thing
(2) Lack of respect accompanied by a feeling of intense dislike
"He was held in contempt"
"The despite in which outsiders were held is legendary"
verb
(3) Reject with contempt
"She spurned his advances"
(4) Look down on with disdain
"He despises the people he has to work for"
"The professor scorns the students who don't catch on immediately"
WiktionaryText
Etymology
Alteration of escarn (cognate with Spanish escarnio and Italian scherno).
Verb
- To feel or display contempt or disdain for something or somebody; to despise.
- To scoff, express contempt
- To reject, turn down
- She scorned his romantic advances.
Noun
Quotations
- circa 1605: The cry is still 'They come': our castle's strength / Will laugh a siege to scorn — William Shakespeare, Macbeth
- 1967: Rain of tears, real, mist of imagined scorn — John Berryman, Berryman's Sonnets. New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux.