Word.ws English Dictionary

hold in contempt

hold in contempt verb: to judge someone to have been in contempt of court.

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.

Forms of hold in contempt

third-person singular presentholds in contempt
present participleholding in contempt
past participleheld in contempt
pastheld in contempt

Questions about hold in contempt

What does hold in contempt mean?
Hold in contempt means to judge someone to have been in contempt of court.
What part of speech is hold in contempt?
Hold in contempt is a verb.
What is the past tense of hold in contempt?
The past tense of hold in contempt is held in contempt.

Words near hold in contempt in the dictionary

  1. hold hands
  2. hold hard
  3. hold harmless
  4. hold hostage
  5. hold in
  6. hold in contempt
  7. hold in derision
  8. hold in hand
  9. hold it
  10. hold it down
  11. hold it in

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: 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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