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Despised

[dih-spahyz]

verb (used with object), -spised, -spis·ing.

to regard with contempt, distaste, disgust, or disdain; scorn; loathe.

Origin:
1250–1300; Middle English despisen < Old French despis-, stem of despire < Latin dēspicere; see despicable

Related forms

de·spis·a·ble, adjective

de·spis·a·ble·ness, noun

de·spis·er, noun

de·spis·ing·ly, adverb

un·de·spised, adjective

EXPAND

un·de·spis·ing, adjective

COLLAPSE

Synonyms
contemn, detest.

Antonyms
admire.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Despised is always a great word to know.

So is callithumpian. Does it mean:

a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.

a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.

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Example Sentences

It may be good politics to attack lawyers for representing despised clients, but it is bad policy.

Trull is a lobbyist as despised as she is respected.

Were it not for equally despised laws preventing companies from delisting their shares, many foreigners would be gone in a moment.

EXPAND

It may be good politics to attack lawyers for representing despised clients, but it is bad policy.

Trull is a lobbyist as despised as she is respected.

Were it not for equally despised laws preventing companies from delisting their shares, many foreigners would be gone in a moment.

They were prized by hunters and despised by farmers and ranchers who suffered livestock losses at their hands.

Your dog knows in a sniff if you have been cavorting with the despised feline next door or fingering his favorite treats.

They despised that postmodern president and his real-time policies, and still do now that we're living in the rerun.

Saab's owner, and the last thing they want is to seem to be bailing out a despised foreign company.

So in my great southern university town, generally the university is despised and faculty treated as though they are on welfare.

Japan's coddled and crony-ridden banks are despised by the public.

People seen as traitors are universally despised and stigmatized.

But even so, geeks have come a long way since they were mocked and despised a couple decades ago.

Take the case of a lady of our acquaintance who had always greatly despised fishing.

Until he learns that lesson he will become more and more despised.

Nepal's elected government was widely despised before the murders.

James claims it's unclear whether she was violent-only that she despised her stepmother.

But civil rights can never be based on being or having been despised.

Though empirical scientists sometimes scoff at it, this third method is not to be despised.

The harried young executive was engaged in one of the more despised forms of mobile-phone behavior.

Nobody is likely to cry about that, since the tabloids are generally despised even by those who read them.

And it has proved all those despised doubters right.

Sharing the cake fairly with a distrusted and often despised minority arouses strong feelings.

In any case, he despised politicians, for their evident corruption and lack of ideals.

For women, historically too easily despised and made the butt of jokes, the victory is in pulling off a comic.

One twin is a member of a prestigious majority group in one culture, and the other twin is in a despised minority in another.

By the mid-1940s he began to resemble the narrow-minded provincials he so despised.

It does not seem as if he courted, or defied, or despised danger in the chivalrous sense.

The red shirts have set up their own radio stations to compete with the government's despised broadcasting service.

I've always despised the use of false dichotomies and false choices in complex and nuanced issues.

Businessmen despised him even more for his radical views about labor.

Both the insurgency and the government are despised by the public and so both rely on foreign backing to survive.

The word caught on immediately, which makes sense, since there have always been men who have despised women.

Stuffiness in social interaction was a symbol of the despised elder generation's cultural.

But there have always been women who have despised men.

Most of them let themselves be despised and even teased when they are travelling abroad.

In fact, it appears that lawyers for the indigent are despised almost as much as the indigent.

The breakup was bitter, and the two men despised each other, mainly because of a dispute over back pay.

Chief executives and accountants have become a despised breed, less trusted even than politicians and journalists.

But he was despised by the leftist guerrillas and their sympathizers.

Not a perfect society by any means, but not to be despised and even to be admired for more than swimming, surfing and indolence.

Despised by dieters, it remains deliciously feminine, sinfully sweet and outrageously hedonistic.

But on the other hand, when they protest and express their concerns for the future they're mocked and despised.

The despised rabble must be ruled by those who are more enlightened and divine.

COLLAPSE

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

despise

c.1300, from O.Fr. despis-, stem of despire, from L. despicere "look down on, scorn," from de- "down" + specere "look at" (see scope (1)).

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Matching Quote

"Better to be despised and have a servant, than to be self-important and lack food."

-unknown author

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