scorns

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...

   Synonyms:

   contemn, disdain, despect, disrespect, despise, disesteem, look down on, misrespect, spurn, fleer

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...

   Synonyms:

   deride, mock, ridicule, scoff, sneer, gird, jeer, jibe, laugh at

See all 7 meanings of scorn