This is a test of the new dictionary software. Click a word, any word. Every word in the definitions below links back to its own definition, for greater overall comprehension and learning.

2 definitions found

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:

  Contemptuous \Con*temp"tu*ous\ (?; 135), a.
     Manifesting or expressing contempt or disdain; scornful;
     haughty; insolent; disdainful.
  
           A proud, contemptuous behavior.          --Hammond.
  
           Savage invective and contemptuous sarcasm. --Macaulay.
  
           Rome . . . entertained the most contemptuous opinion of
           the Jews.                                --Atterbury.
  
     Syn: Scornful; insolent; haughty; disdainful; supercilious;
          insulting; contumelious.
  
     Usage: {Contemptuous}, {Contemptible}. These words, from
            their similarity of sound, are sometimes erroneously
            interchanged, as when a person speaks of having ``a
            very contemptible opinion of another.'' Contemptible
            is applied to that which is the object of contempt;
            as, contemptible conduct; acontemptible fellow.
            Contemptuous is applied to that which indicates
            contempt; as, a contemptuous look; a contemptuous
            remark; contemptuous treatment. A person, or whatever
            is personal, as an action, an expression, a feeling,
            an opinion, may be either contemptuous or
            contemptible; a thing may be contemptible, but can not
            be contemptuous.

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  contemptuous
       adj : expressing extreme contempt [syn: {disdainful}, {insulting},
              {scornful}]

This site brought to you by a half dozen lines of PHP code slapped together by Chris Knight and hosted by ProxyIT.