How to Use contemptuous in a Sentence

contemptuous

adjective
Definition of contemptuousnext
Synonyms for contemptuousnext
  • Still, some onlookers felt conflicted, even contemptuous.
    — Constance Grady, Vox, 1 Aug. 2024
  • The name of this spiffy young devil, whose contemptuous charm is dripping from the stage of the Linda Gross Theater, is Mooney.
    — Ben Brantley, New York Times, 5 Feb. 2018
  • A contemptuous term for a black or dark-skinned person.
    — Charles P. Pierce, Esquire, 18 Nov. 2016
  • Robertson, for his part, was contemptuous of what Schlesinger had shot.
    — Louis Menand, The New Yorker, 5 Apr. 2021
  • Garza is almost contemptuous of the many people who seek her advice on how to grow their brand and go viral.
    — Washington Post, 11 Dec. 2020
  • And yet, some of Villa’s fans remain contemptuous of him.
    — Bruce Schoenfeld Robert Fass Anna Diamond David Mason, New York Times, 4 May 2024
  • Not posh, and neither impressed by nor contemptuous of those who were.
    — Ian McEwan, The New Yorker, 1 Aug. 2022
  • Grandiosity is the sense of being above other people, and contemptuous of the rules.
    — Jancee Dunn, Vogue, 17 June 2022
  • The answer, thankfully, is the former, as her contemptuous Mary Louise anchors much of the new episodes’ drama.
    — Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY, 6 June 2019
  • For much of the hour-long contemptuous meeting, Ryan and Vance were constantly invoking the boogeymen around their foe.
    — Philip Elliott, Time, 18 Oct. 2022
  • The non-Olympian immortals who survive this coup view the usurping gods with disdain and are contemptuous of the humans who worship them.
    — Wendy Smith, BostonGlobe.com, 10 Aug. 2023
  • Ted’s anger, Bill Walton remembered, seemed reserved for those who were contemptuous of the poor.
    — Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 29 May 2024
  • A decade ago, Steve Jobs was contemptuous of selling to businesses.
    — Alan Murray, Fortune, 28 June 2017
  • Taliban forces have taken cities across the country with contemptuous ease, and the fall of the capital city Kabul is expected in weeks if not days.
    — Ryan Cooper, The Week, 14 Aug. 2021
  • That contemptuous attitude has served Petty well over the decades.
    — Dan Deluca, Philly.com, 3 Oct. 2017
  • That contemptuous remark may have cost Romney fils the election.
    — Timothy Noah, The New Republic, 7 Apr. 2023
  • The Yonyx are equally contemptuous of the older robotic models.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 1 Mar. 2022
  • And a third time, Curry, humiliated by James' contemptuous slap of his reverse layup into the stands in the sixth game of last year's Finals, got to the rim against him one-on-one and scored on a layup.
    — Bill Livingston, cleveland.com, 4 June 2017
  • It should be known that at the Criminal Court the aggressors, unpunished, contemptuous and proud, are mixed in with their victims.
    — Alice Gayraud, Marie Claire, 10 Mar. 2018
  • The truth is, some in Congress are suspicious — even contemptuous — of in-house expertise.
    — Karen Tumulty, Washington Post, 28 June 2024
  • The morning after Daemon and Rhaenyra's big night out, Mysaria is shown to be increasingly contemptuous of her lover.
    — Philip Ellis, Men's Health, 17 Sep. 2022
  • There are effectively two states — one working class and more pro-Trump, and the other more upscale and deeply contemptuous of the president — that Ms. Collins must bridge.
    — Jonathan Martin, New York Times, 23 Oct. 2020
  • The Baroness is more openly contemptuous than Priestly was and much of her behavior is criminal.
    — Chris Hewitt, Star Tribune, 27 May 2021
  • Shaw had been killed at the second battle of Fort Wagner, and contemptuous Confederate troops dumped the bodies of Shaw and his troops into a mass grave.
    — Alice George, Smithsonian, 25 July 2018
  • But people who are more contemptuous of that system are much more interesting to me.
    — Choire Sicha, Vulture, 13 July 2023
  • The recordings reveal a man who is fixated on his own celebrity, anxious about losing his status and contemptuous of those who fall from grace.
    — Michael Barbaro, New York Times, 25 Oct. 2016
  • That’s a lot of money to give to institutions that have shown themselves contemptuous of conservative values and the cause of free inquiry.
    — Frederick M. Hess, National Review, 17 Sep. 2020
  • The Punjabis were particularly contemptuous of the Bengalis’ skin color, which is a few shades darker than the Punjabi norm.
    — Tunku Varadarajan, WSJ, 18 Mar. 2022
  • Sick of Miller and contemptuous of Nadel — whose own Roth biography paints him as terrified of intimacy and was published last month — Roth kept up the hunt.
    — New York Times, 30 Mar. 2021
  • What happened to the idea that art and culture should be a contemptuous refuge from the mainstream, as opposed to this lickspittle, running dog accommodation to the mainstream?
    — Billboard Staff, Billboard, 3 June 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'contemptuous.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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