Link Centre Dictionary

despise

des·pise

UK/dɪˈspaɪz/ US/dɪˈspaɪz/ fairly common

verb

1.

look down on with disdain

  • “He despises the people he has to work for”
  • “The professor scorns the students who don”
Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English despisen, from Old French despis-, stem of despire, from Latin dēspicere (“to look down upon, despise, scorn”), from dē (“down”) + speciō (“to look at”). Displaced native Old English forsēon.

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.