disdain implies an arrogant or supercilious aversion to what is regarded as unworthy.
disdained popular music
Examples of disdain in a Sentence
NounMcCarthy's indifference to accolades and his disdain for grandstanding … turned into a disdain even for being understood.—Louis Menand, New Yorker, 5 Apr. 2004There is fierce disdain within the Pentagon for the passive U.N. peacekeepers who stood by while thousands were murdered in Bosnia's ethnic cleansing.—Joe Klein, Time, 24 Nov. 2003But for all its playful love of puns and cool disdain for "suits," the high-tech world is, at heart, a cruel, unforgiving place ruled by the merciless dynamics of the marketplace.—Michiko Kakutani, New York Times, 27 June 2002
He regarded their proposal with disdain.
I have a healthy disdain for companies that mistreat their workers. VerbThe right eyes him [Thomas Jefferson] suspiciously as a limousine Jacobin so enamored of revolution that he once suggested we should have one every 20 years. The left disdains him as your basic race hypocrite.—Charles Krauthammer, Time, 22 May 2000Only in our last days on the peninsula (the arm of Antarctica that polar scientists disdain as the "Banana Belt") did we see our first frozen sea …—Kate Ford, Wall Street Journal, 12 June 1998His vehicle would be a form he both enjoyed and disdained—pulp fiction.—Henry Louis Gates, Jr., New York Times Book Review, 20 Sept. 1992There is also evidence of epic womanizing that Mr. Schickel mentions but loftily announces that he disdains to tell us about.—Camille Paglia, New York Times Book Review, 21 July 1991
They disdained him for being weak.
She disdained to answer their questions.
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
Despite any disdain that Bonnie may have felt toward her mother-in-law, Bonnie and Jim lived with Jim’s mother and stepfather at two different residences following their move to Middletown, according to the census records.—Jessica Winter, The New Yorker, 16 Aug. 2024 Though lawmakers and advocates proposed dozens of bills to regulate artificial intelligence in California this year, none have attracted more disdain from big tech companies, startup founders, and investors than the Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act.—Calmatters, The Mercury News, 13 Aug. 2024
Verb
Second, a few academic studies (which would later be confirmed by a slew of follow-on research) had started to confirm what Lula, who disdained experts, already knew: that the people who best understood what the poor really needed were the poor themselves.—Jonathan Tepperman, Foreign Affairs, 14 Dec. 2015 But, for whatever self-punishing reason, disdained a coat.—Graham Swift, The Atlantic, 3 Aug. 2024 See all Example Sentences for disdain
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'disdain.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Noun
Middle English desdeyne, from Anglo-French desdaign, from desdeigner — see disdainentry 2
Verb
Middle English desdeynen, from Anglo-French desdeigner, dedeigner, from Vulgar Latin *disdignare, from Latin dis- + dignare to deign — more at deign
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