How to use disdain in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Disdain means a feeling of contempt or scorn. Example: “The cat viewed the cheap supermarket catfood with disdain and stalked away.”

Examples of disdain by meaning

nounA feeling of contempt or scorn.

The cat viewed the cheap supermarket catfood with disdain and stalked away.
Somewhere in the Moscow outskirts one could only guess at the grand disdain Cristiano Ronaldo will have felt at being supplanted as the tournament’s top scorer in that manner.2018 June 24, Sam Wallace, “Harry Kane scores hat-trick as England hit Panama for six to secure World Cup knock-out qualification”, in...

verbTo regard (someone or something) with strong contempt.

Obama seemed like a digital-age leader who could at last dislodge the stalemate between those who clung to the government of the Great Society, on the one hand, and those who disdained the very idea of government, on the other.2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, in New York Times

More sentences with disdain

Paul disdained pan and scan DVD releases, always holding out for the widescreen special editions.From the entry pan and scan
Faiyum, his expression caught somewhere between boredom and disdain, narrows his kohled eyes.2022, N. K. Jemisin, The World We Make, Orbit, page 303. From the entry kohled
With obvious disdain, Squat replied, “Yeah, you know, that is what they call footballs, dummy.”2011, J. H. Holland, Dsi: Diddly Squat Investigation, page 35. From the entry pigskin
His disdain for Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schröder, and theirs for him, was bristlingly clear.2008 June 15, Maureen Dowd, “W. Regrets Almost Nothing”, in New York Times. From the entry bristlingly
Thus in the name of preserving hope do we disdain it.2008 February 4, Michael Chabon, “Obama vs. the Phobocracy”, in Washington Post. From the entry phobocracy
Yet her pride emphasizes the fact that she does not internalize the shame-casting disdain of white people.2003, Jeffrey J. Santa Ana, Critical Emotions, page 265. From the entry shame-casting
They are black-avised as warlocks and wear their black cowls with formality and disdain.1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance (Avignon Quintet), Penguin, published 2004, page 652. From the entry blackavised
The most disdain is directed toward the “shrinks” or the “spooks,” as the psychiatrists are called.1975, Robert O. Pasnau, Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, page 124. From the entry spook
The young Jugoslav taxidriver who took us to the airport drove with a discontented and furious disdain.1965, Peter Black, The Poms in the Sun, London: Michael Joseph Ltd, page 230. From the entry Slav
But yesterday They did disdain only to bend their eyes Upon so low a girl.1920, James F. Waight, Richard II, page 66. From the entry belady
With a look of disdain, he exclaimed: “Blow me, your shirt!1917, Arthur Guy Empey, “Lewis Gun”, in Over the Top, G. P. Putnam's, page 44. From the entry blow me
But it is the lot of goodness and truth ever to meet with misappreciation and disdain.1909, Anna Katharine Green, The Forsaken Inn. From the entry misappreciation
Musk has shown a disdain toward Twitter’s previous corporate culture.2023 July 24, Ryan Mac, Tiffany Hsu, “From Twitter to X: Elon Musk Begins Erasing an Iconic Internet Brand”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry quibble
But his disdain for his former itinerancy had made it so he could not recognize the reasons a person should stay.2022, Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Vintage (2023), page 269. From the entry itinerancy
Typically, the art world disdains “flipping” — when a collector buys a work and then immediately resells it at a profit.2021 March 11, Scott Reyburn, “JPG File Sells for $69 Million, as ‘NFT Mania’ Gathers Pace”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry flip
It’s a theoretical framework that illuminates society’s inability to recognize our humanity — the disdain, disregard and disgust for our existence.2020 June 4, Kihana Miraya Ross, “Call It What It Is: Anti-Blackness”, in New York Times. From the entry antiblackness
Incelism tends to generalize beyond just a disdain for women and reflects a general contempt for the world at large.2019, Ramani S. Durvasula, "Don't You Know Who I Am?", page 314. From the entry incelism
Andrew Cuomo's first term but was viewed with disdain by a large chunk of New Yorkers, especially upstaters.2015 November 1, Matthew Hamilton, “Gun law survives another year”, in Times Union. From the entry ultracontroversial
And few would distinguish between state and federal public servants, tarring them with the same brush of disdain.2008 June 6, Terry Sweetman, “Kevin Rudd’s public service demands nothing new”, in The Courier-Mail, Brisbane, Qld.: Queensland…. From the entry tar with the same brush
“A stud!” “A stud muffin!” In general, the students’ enthusiasm for Clinton was equalled by their disdain for George W.2003 August 11, The New Yorker. From the entry stud muffin
A blanket disdain for indigenous foods doesn't explain the delay, because Spain was avid to adopt a different New World root.1999, Larry Zuckerman, The Potato: How the Humble Spud Rescued the Western World. From the entry avid
Many within our community view childrearing with skepticism or disdain.1993 October, Nancy D. Polikoff, “Lesbian And Gay Parenting: What's At Stake?”, in Gay Community News, page 14. From the entry affirmatively
Of course, this little antiastrology sermon is being preached to the converted; most literate readers disdain astrology already.1992, Lawrence B. Slobodkin, Simplicity and complexity in games of the intellect, page 10. From the entry antiastrology
Commonly, the surgeons view nonsurgeons with disdain.1975, Robert O. Pasnau, Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, page 124. From the entry spook
Buffs strive for the well-rounded body, disdain the professional weightlifter, who merely develops a number of very specialized muscles.December 1964, “Muscles are his business”, in Ebony, volume 20, number 2, page 148. From the entry bodybuilder
The good students who slog away and do not concern themselves with writing - one can despise them and disdain their victories.2021 December 5, Jean-Paul Sartre, The Family Idiot: Gustave Flaubert, 1821-1857, Volume 3, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 59. From the entry slog away
These people have been broken by their own pride, their sense of entitlement, and their own disdain of anyone who does not agree with them.2018 May 19, David Prentice, “Code Red: The Coming Eruption”, in American Thinker. From the entry get woke, go broke
But such disdain for the homegrown Communists and even for the Comintern had little impact on the ultraoptimistic views of the USSR.2017, Ian Bullock, Under Siege: The Independent Labour Party in Interwar Britain. From the entry ultraoptimistic
Everyone KF targets is “crazy” to them, and everything KFers find funny or worthy of disdain is justified as evidence of this perceived mental illness.2016 July 19, Margaret Pless, “Kiwi Farms, the Web’s Biggest Community of Stalkers”, in Intelligencer, New York, N.Y.: New York Media…. From the entry KF
Imogen was British, she was allowed to use British spelling, and I admired her majestic disdain for the coldblooded Americanization of the English tongue.2013, Sharon Edwards, “Some Sunny Day”, in Pioneer Boulevard: Los Angeles Stories, Pasadena, Calif.: Consonant Books, →ISBN, page 135. From the entry coldblooded
The four bearers, all unwhiskered eunuchs, stood in front of the chairs, their hands tucked into their sleeves, looks of disdain on their faces.2013, Mo Yan, chapter 2, in Howard Goldblatt, transl., Sandalwood Death, University of Oklahoma Press. From the entry unwhiskered
In other letters, she would convey a mounting exasperation with her rigid conservative father and disdain for both “debutante” dormmates and an acid-dropping friend.2007 July 29, Mark Leibovich, “In the ’60s, a Future Candidate Poured Her Heart Out in Letters”, in New York Times. From the entry dormmate
He was incredibly chippy, was that the thing?—all his longings came out as a kind of disdain for what he longed for.2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 5, in The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN. From the entry chippy
Perhaps Rorty's pragmatics of liberal ironism is a better way of understanding the implication of the existence of disdained others on the post-modern.2002, Keith Tester, The Life and Times of Post-Modernity, Routledge, →ISBN, page 149. From the entry ironism
In the early days, men of first-class ability, such as Alexander Hamilton, Samuel Adams, and James Madison, did not disdain membership in the state legislatures.1919, Samuel P. Orth, “Legislative Omnipotence”, in Allen Johnson, editor, The Boss and the Machine: A Chronicle of the Politicians and…. From the entry party spirit
Bush, who is very friendly with both Obama and Clinton, but as a Republican is unlikely to campaign for Biden even given his disdain for Trump’s contempt for democracy.2024 March 27, Stephen Collinson, “Three presidents and one mission: Beat Trump”, in CNN. From the entry jimmy
She disdained everybody; and because of her disdainings it was believed that the master of her beauty was the Lord of Darkness; and that seemed reasonable.2019, Thomas A. Janvier, Legends of the City of Mexico. From the entry disdaining

Meaning of disdain

noun A feeling of contempt or scorn.
noun That which is worthy to be disdained or regarded with contempt and aversion.
noun The state of being despised; shame.

Full definition of disdain

Questions about disdain in a sentence

How do you use disdain in a sentence?: Disdain is used as a noun and verb. For example: “The cat viewed the cheap supermarket catfood with disdain and stalked away.”
What is a short sentence with disdain?: “Commonly, the surgeons view nonsurgeons with disdain.”
What does disdain mean?: Disdain means a feeling of contempt or scorn.

Adapted from Wiktionary: disdain (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use disdain in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/disdain. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.