contumelious
/ˌkɒn.tjʊˈmiː.li.əs/US/ˌkɑn.tʊˈmiː.li.əs/
contumelious adjective: rudely contemptuous; showing contumely; exhibiting an insolent or disdainful attitude.
Adjective
contumelious (comparative more contumelious, superlative most contumelious)
- Rudely contemptuous; showing contumely; exhibiting an insolent or disdainful attitude.
- 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.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]...
- To sin against his law, is an high affront to his majesty; but to sin against his love and benefits is more contumelious to him.a. 1699, William Bates, “The Danger of Prosperity”, in The Whole Works of the Rev. W. Bates, Volume 2, published 1815, page 262
- Synonyms:
- disdainful, insolent
contumelious meaning in Tamil
contumelious in Tamil
- இழிவாக, அவமதிப்பாக
Examples of contumelious in a sentence
- I returned it to its maker, with whom I had so contumelious a passage that the street outside was crowded from wall to wall with gossips looking on and listening.1879, Robert Louis Stevenson, Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes, 1st American edition, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC:
- "How now, you scullions and cullions: bring hither a pair of cow's hooves to out face this contumelious caitiff."1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 44:
Synonyms of contumelious
Forms of contumelious
| comparative | more contumelious |
|---|---|
| superlative | most contumelious |
Origin of contumelious
From Old French contumelieus, from Latin contumēliōsus (“insulting; abusive”), from contumēlia (“affront, abuse, insult”).
Questions about contumelious
- What does contumelious mean?
- Contumelious means rudely contemptuous; showing contumely; exhibiting an insolent or disdainful attitude.
- What is contumelious in Tamil?
- Contumelious in Tamil is இழிவாக, அவமதிப்பாக. See Contumelious meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use contumelious in a sentence?
- I returned it to its maker, with whom I had so contumelious a passage that the street outside was crowded from wall to wall with gossips looking on and listening.
- What part of speech is contumelious?
- Contumelious is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce contumelious?
- Contumelious is pronounced /ˌkɒn.tjʊˈmiː.li.əs/ (UK).
Words near contumelious in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: contumelious (page history and authors); contumelious (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-contumelious.wav.
Cite this entry: “contumelious.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/contumelious. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.