contemptuous

Learned borrowing from Latin contemptus (whence contempt) +‎ -ous.[1]

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kənˈtɛm(p).tʃu.əs/, /kənˈtɛm(p).tʃəs/, /kənˈtɛm(p).tju.əs/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /kənˈtɛmp.t͡ʃu.əs/

contemptuous (comparative more contemptuous, superlative most contemptuous)

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

   I don't know that guy, but he just gave me a contemptuous look.

   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Challenge”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 234:

     Sir George burst into a loud fit of contemptuous laughter.

   • 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

     The most rapid and most seductive transition in all human nature is that which attends the palliation of a ravenous appetite. […] Can those harmless but refined fellow-diners be the selfish cads whose gluttony and personal appearance so raised your contemptuous wrath on your arrival?

• disdainful
• dismissive

• respectful

• contemptuously
• contemptuousness

• contemn
• contempt