Word.ws English Dictionary

scorning

scorning is the present participle and gerund of scorn.

Meaning of scorn

Verb

scorn (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.
    • The Cry is ſtill, they come: our Caſtles ſtrength / Will laugh a Siedge to ſcornec. 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...
  2. (transitive) To reject, turn down with disdain.
    • He scorned her romantic advances.
    Synonyms:
    spurn
  3. (transitive) To refuse to do something, as beneath oneself.
    • She scorned to show weakness.
  4. (intransitive) 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.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...

See all 7 meanings of scorn

Noun

scorning (plural scornings)

  1. The act of one who scorns.
    • But it pleased her to play on my passion / And whet me to pleadings / That won from her mirthful negations / And scornings undue.1909, Thomas Hardy, The Flirt's Tragedy

Forms of scorning

pluralscornings

Questions about scorning

What does scorning mean?
Scorning means the act of one who scorns.
What is scorning the present participle and gerund of?
Scorning is the present participle and gerund of scorn.
What part of speech is scorning?
Scorning is a noun.
What is the plural of scorning?
The plural of scorning is scornings.

Words near scorning in the dictionary

  1. scornfull
  2. scornfullest
  3. scornfully
  4. scornfulness
  5. Scornicești
  6. scorning
  7. scorningly
  8. scornings
  9. scornless
  10. scorns
  11. scornworthy

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: scorning (page history and authors); scorn (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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Cite this entry: “scorning.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scorning. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.