scorn
verbnounattested in dialogue
- United Kingdom//skɔːn//
- United States//skɔɹn//
To feel or display contempt or disdain for something or somebody; to despise.
verb
- 1
To feel or display contempt or disdain for something or somebody; to despise.
The Cry is ſtill, they come: our Caſtles ſtrength / Will laugh a Siedge to ſcorne
We scorn what is in itself contemptible or disgraceful.
- 2
To reject, turn down with disdain.
He scorned her romantic advances.
Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd, / Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman ſcorn'd.
- 3
To refuse to do something, as beneath oneself.
She scorned to show weakness.
- 4
To scoff, to express contempt.
For miſerie doth braueſt mindes abate, / And make them ſeeke for that they wont to ſcorne, / Of fortune and of hope at once forlorne.
Etymology
Verb from Middle English scornen, schornen, alteration of Old French escharnir, from Vulgar Latin *escarnire, from Proto-West Germanic *skarnijan, possibly from Proto-Germanic *skeraną (“to shear”) (from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”)), or possibly related to *skarną (“dung, filth”) (from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱerd-, *(s)ḱer- (“dung, manure, filth”)). Noun from Old French escarn (cognate with Portuguese escárnio, Spanish escarnio and Italian scherno). Cognate with Middle High German schern (“joke, mockery, scorn”), Old English sċierniċġe (“female entertainer, juggler, actress”).
noun
- 1
Contempt or disdain.
Rain of tears, real, mist of imagined scorn
- 2
A display of disdain; a slight.
VVith ſcoffes and ſcornes, and contumelious taunts, / In open Market-place produc't they me, / To be a publique ſpectacle to all: / Here, ſayd they, is the Terror of the French, / The Scar-Crovv that affrights our Children ſo.
Every sullen frown and bitter scorn / But fanned the fuel that too fast did burn.
- 3
An object of disdain, contempt, or derision.
Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.
Forms
- plural
- scorns
- past tense
- scorned
- past participle
- scorned
- present participle
- scorning
- third person singular
- scorns
scorn · To feel or display contempt or disdain for something or somebody; to despise.
scorpion · Any of the order Scorpiones of arachnids related to spiders,…Scorpion · The constellation and zodiacal sign Scorpius.scotch · A surface cut or abrasion.