Word.ws English Dictionary

held in contempt

held in contempt is the simple past and past participle of hold in contempt.

Meaning of hold in contempt

Verb

hold in contempt (third-person singular simple present holds in contempt, present participle holding in contempt, simple past and past participle held in contempt)

  1. To judge someone to have been in contempt of court.
    • The Meta chief was flanked by people wearing the Meta Ray-Ban artificial intelligence glasses, and the judge in the courtroom threatened to hold anyone recording with the devices in contempt.2026 February 18, Sanya Mansoor, “Zuckerberg grilled in landmark social media trial over teen mental health”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 19 Feb 2026
  2. (figuratively) To consider someone unworthy of respect.

Questions about held in contempt

What is held in contempt the simple past and past participle of?
Held in contempt is the simple past and past participle of hold in contempt.

Words near held in contempt in the dictionary

  1. held for ransom
  2. held forth
  3. held good
  4. held hostage
  5. held in
  6. held in contempt
  7. held in derision
  8. held in hand
  9. held it
  10. held it down
  11. held it in

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: held in contempt (page history and authors); hold in contempt (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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