scorn
/skɔːn
/noun [mass noun]
1A feeling and expression of contempt or disdain for someone or something: I do not wish to become the object of scorn...
- The more I have come to feel this way the more I've tried not to express scorn for things that do not catch my attention but that obviously mean a great deal to others.
- Even the junior senator from North Carolina felt obliged to express her scorn for these malefactors of great wealth.
- She is an incredible artist who has endured public derision and scorn for well over a decade.
Synonyms
contempt, derision, contemptuousness, disdain, derisiveness, scornfulness, mockery, sneering, scoffing
archaic contumely, despite
1.1 [in singular] archaic A person viewed with contempt or disdain: a scandal and a scorn to all who look on thee
1.2 [count noun] archaic A statement or gesture indicating contempt: I met with scoffs, I met with scorns
verb [with object]
1Feel or express contempt or disdain for: the minister scorned Labour’s attempt to woo voters...
- The foreign minister was particularly scorned for going to the opera on Sunday night and not turning up for work until 31 hours after the earthquake.
- The first five were friends from school teasing him in fun or scorning him with contempt.
- Imagine sacrificing your son for someone else's sake, and not getting any credit, any appreciation for it, even being scorned and mocked for it.
1.1Reject (something) in a contemptuous way: a letter scorning his offer of intimacy...
- Hogeland's idea was scorned or ignored in the larger, more prosperous metropolitan centers in the 1890s.
- But U.S. media coverage matched the bipartisan refusal by leaders in Congress to do anything but scorn the offer.
- She scorns his gallant language, and constantly rebuffs his advances.
Synonyms
spurn, rebuff, reject, ignore, shun, snub
1.2 [no object, with infinitive] Refuse to do something because one is too proud: at her lowest ebb, she would have scorned to stoop to such tactics...
- When the will defies fear, when duty throws the gauntlet down to fate, when honor scorns to compromise with death - that is heroism.
- As time went on new rules were drafted, pitches were developed, the games began to draw the attention of people who at one time would have scorned to be associated with them.
Synonyms
refuse to, refrain from, not lower oneself to;
be above, consider it beneath one
Phrases
pour scorn on
Derivatives
scorner
- I made it absolutely clear to the mockers and scorners at work, that I would only watch the intellectual channels - and Manchester United Live, of course.
- Then again, he derides the negligence of journalists, but this is a strangely negligent book for a scorner.
- They are scorners of the law of nations; hence they find no protection in that law.
Origin
Middle English: shortening of Old French escarn (noun), escharnir (verb), of Germanic origin.
Scorn is a shortening of Old French escarn, of Germanic origin. The phrase hell hath no fury like a woman scorned is a version of a line in William Congreve's 1697 play The Mourning Bride: ‘Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd, Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn'd’.