Definition of "scorn"

scorn

/skɔːn/

verb
third-person singular simple present scorns, present participle scorning, simple past and past participle scorned
1. (transitive) To feel or display contempt or disdain for something or somebody; to despise.
  Quotations
  The Cry is ſtill, they come: our Caſtles ſtrength / Will laugh a Siedge to ſcorne
  c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene v], page 150
  We scorn what is in itself contemptible or disgraceful.
  1871, C. J. Smith, Synonyms Discriminated
2. (transitive) To reject, turn down.
  Quotations
  Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd, / Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman ſcorn'd.
  1697, [William] Congreve, The Mourning Bride, a Tragedy. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], Act III, page 39
3. (transitive) To refuse to do something, as beneath oneself.
4. (intransitive) To scoff, to express contempt.
  Quotations
  For miſerie doth braueſt mindes abate, / And make them ſeeke for that they wont to ſcorne, / Of fortune and of hope at once forlorne.
  1578–1579, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “Prosopopoia. Or Mother Hubberds Tale. [...] Dedicated to the Right Honorable the Ladie Compton and Mountegle”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. Whereof the Next Page Maketh Mention‎, London: Imprinted for William Ponsonbie, dwelling in Paules Churchyard at the signe of the Bishops head, published 1591
noun
countable and uncountable, plural scorns
1. (uncountable) Contempt or disdain.
  Quotations
  Rain of tears, real, mist of imagined scorn
  1967, John Berryman, Berryman’s Sonnets, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
2. (countable) A display of disdain; a slight.
  Quotations
  VVith ſcoffs 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.
  1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene vi], page 100, column 1
  Every sullen frown and bitter scorn / But fanned the fuel that too fast did burn.
  1685, John Dryden, The Despairing Lover
3. (countable) An object of disdain, contempt, or derision.
  Quotations
  Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Psalms 44:13

Definition of "scorn"

scorn

verb

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noun

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