释义 |
contemptuous, a.|kənˈtɛm(p)tjuːəs| Also 7 -tious. [f. L. contemptu-s contempt + -ous. (There may have been a mod.L. *contemptuōsus.)] 1. Showing contempt (said of persons, their conduct and acts); full of contempt; disdainful, scornful, insolent.
1595Shakes. John ii. i. 384 The flintie ribbes of this contemptuous Citie. 1667Milton P.L. iv. 885 Satan with contemptuous brow. 1692W. Lowth Vind. Insp. O. & N. Test. (1699) C iij a, Resolved in a Contemptious manner to shut their Eyes against the..Light. 1793Beddoes Math. Evid. 128 Mr. Heyne speaks in the most contemptuous terms of [it]. 1859Geo. Eliot A. Bede 9 An air of contemptuous indifference. 1879E. Garrett House by Works II. 19 Sometimes she was hard and cold and contemptuous. b. Const. of.
1865Mill Exam. Hamilton 248 We know how contemptuous he is of Brown. 1874Green Short Hist. iii. §5. 140 Men..contemptuous of the principles of English government. †2. Setting legal authority at defiance; contemning law and public order. Obs.
1529[see contemptuously b]. 1547Proclam. in Strype Eccl. Mem. II. App. C. 20 In the execution of justice and punishment of al such contemptuous offenders. 1593Rites & Mon. Ch. Durh. (Surtees) 24 Defaced by some lewde and contemptuous wicked persons. 1681Lond. Gaz. No. 1657/3 Your Declaration, dated the eighth of April last; which very observably allayed the contemptuous contagion that began to reinfect the credulous and unstable. †3. Exciting or worthy of contempt; contemptible, despicable. Obs.
1549Chaloner Erasm. on Folly K iv a, A kynde of men most miserable, most slavelike, and most contemptuous. 1593Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, i. iii. 86 Contemptuous base borne Callot as she is. 1650Baxter Saints' R. iii. xiii. (1662) 528 Cast them off as contemptuous Swine. 1796E. Parsons Myst. Warning III. 169 Fragments like these were to him contemptuous ruins. |