CONTEMN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does contemn mean? 

• CONTEMN (verb)
  The verb CONTEMN has 1 sense:

1. look down on with disdain

  Familiarity information: CONTEMN used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONTEMN (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they contemn    ... he / she / it contemns   
Past simple: contemned   
Past participle: contemned   
-ing form: contemning   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Look down on with disdain

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

contemn; despise; disdain; scorn

Context example:

The professor scorns the students who don't catch on immediately

Hypernyms (to "contemn" is one way to...):

detest; hate (dislike intensely; feel antipathy or aversion towards)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "contemn"):

look down on (regard with contempt)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

 Context examples 

The women of the island have abundance of vivacity: they contemn their husbands, and are exceedingly fond of strangers, whereof there is always a considerable number from the continent below, attending at court, either upon affairs of the several towns and corporations, or their own particular occasions, but are much despised, because they want the same endowments.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)