Contemptible definition

Contemptible





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3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Contemptible \Con*tempt"i*ble\, a.
     1. Worthy of contempt; deserving of scorn or disdain; mean;
        vile; despicable. --Milton.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The arguments of tyranny are ascontemptible as its


              force is dreadful.                    --Burke.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Despised; scorned; neglected; abject. --Locke.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. Insolent; scornful; contemptuous. [Obs.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
              If she should make tender of her love, 't is very
              possible he 'll scorn it; for the man . . . hath a
              contemptible spirit.                  --Shak.
  
     Syn: Despicable; abject; vile; mean; base; paltry; worthless;
          sorry; pitiful; scurrile. See {Contemptuous}.
  
     Usage: {Contemptible}, {Despicable}, {Pitiful}, {Paltry}.
            Despicable is stronger than contemptible, as despise
            is stronger than contemn. It implies keen
            disapprobation, with a mixture of anger. A man is
            despicable chiefly for low actions which mark his
            life, such as servility, baseness, or mean adulation.
            A man is contemptible for mean qualities which
            distinguish his character, especially those which show
            him to be weak, foolish, or worthless. Treachery is
            despicable, egotism is contemptible. Pitiful and
            paltry are applied to cases which are beneath anger,
            and are simply contemptible in a high degree.
            [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  contemptible
       adj 1: deserving of contempt or scorn [ant: {estimable}]
       2: worthy only of being despised and rejected; "a contemptible
          lack of courage"; "A little, wretched, despicable
          creature, a worm, a mere nothing...that has risen up in
          contempt against the majesty of Heaven and earth"-
          Jonathan Edwards [syn: {despicable}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  136 Moby Thesaurus words for "contemptible":
     abhorrent, abject, abominable, arrant, atrocious, awful, bad, base,
     beastly, beggarly, below contempt, beneath contempt, blameworthy,
     brutal, cheap, cheesy, common, crude, crummy, debased, degraded,
     deplorable, depraved, despicable, detestable, dire, dirty,
     disgusting, dreadful, egregious, enormous, execrable, fetid,
     filthy, flagrant, forbidding, foul, fulsome, gaudy, gimcracky,
     grave, grievous, gross, hateful, heinous, horrible, horrid,
     ignoble, ignominious, infamous, inferior, lamentable, little,
     loathsome, lousy, low, low-down, lumpen, malodorous, mangy, mean,
     measly, mephitic, meretricious, miasmal, miasmic, miserable,
     monstrous, nasty, nauseating, nefarious, noisome, notorious,
     noxious, objectionable, obnoxious, obscene, odious, offensive,
     outcast, outrageous, paltry, pathetic, petty, pitiable, pitiful,
     poky, poor, rank, rebarbative, regrettable, repellent,
     reprehensible, reptilian, repugnant, repulsive, revolting, rotten,
     rubbishy, sad, scabby, scandalous, schlock, scrubby, scruffy,
     scummy, scurvy, scuzzy, shabby, shameful, shocking, shoddy,
     sickening, small, sordid, sorry, squalid, stinking, terrible,
     too bad, trashy, trumpery, two-for-a-cent, two-for-a-penny,
     twopenny, twopenny-halfpenny, unclean, unmentionable, unworthy,
     valueless, vile, villainous, woeful, worst, worthless, wretched
  
  

















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