SCORNFUL

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does scornful mean? 

• SCORNFUL (adjective)
  The adjective SCORNFUL has 1 sense:

1. expressing extreme contempt

  Familiarity information: SCORNFUL used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SCORNFUL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Expressing extreme contempt

Synonyms:

contemptuous; disdainful; insulting; scornful

Similar:

disrespectful (exhibiting lack of respect; rude and discourteous)

 Context examples 

“In sooth and in sooth!” cried the king-at-arms with scornful eyes.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Jeers and scornful laughter followed him out of the igloo, but his jaw was set and he went his way, looking neither to right nor left.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

She had been often remiss, her conscience told her so; remiss, perhaps, more in thought than fact; scornful, ungracious.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

She condescended to make no reply, but, turning on me with another scornful laugh, said: The friends of this excellent and much-injured young lady are friends of yours.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

This laughter was uproarious and scornful, and at the same time the god pointed his finger derisively at White Fang.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

It cost him no effort to be generous, and he would have given Amy all the trinkets in Nice if she would have taken them, but at the same time he felt that he could not change the opinion she was forming of him, and he rather dreaded the keen blue eyes that seemed to watch him with such half-sorrowful, half-scornful surprise.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

In the days that swiftly followed she was no longer herself but a strange, puzzling creature, wilful over judgment and scornful of self- analysis, refusing to peer into the future or to think about herself and whither she was drifting.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Her wan, scornful mouth smiled and so I drew her up again, closer, this time to my face.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)

When the butler brought back Wolfshiem's answer I began to have a feeling of defiance, of scornful solidarity between Gatsby and me against them all.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)