17 uses
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Definition
to dislike strongly and to look down upon with disrespect
- The day after tomorrow, at the latest, you will begin despising yourself for having knowingly deceived yourself.1.5 — Part 1 Chapter 5 (91% in)
- I wrote it thinking it would sound very witty; but now that I have seen myself that I only wanted to show off in a despicable way, I will not scratch it out on purpose!1.1 — Part 1 Chapter 1 (33% in)
- I was ashamed (even now, perhaps, I am ashamed): I got to the point of feeling a sort of secret abnormal, despicable enjoyment in returning home to my corner on some disgusting Petersburg night, acutely conscious that that day I had committed a loathsome action again, that what was done could never be undone, and secretly, inwardly gnawing, gnawing at myself for it, tearing and consuming myself till at last the bitterness turned into a sort of shameful accursed sweetness, and at...1.2 — Part 1 Chapter 2 (42% in)
- It is nasty for you to hear my despicable moans: well, let it be nasty; here I will let you have a nastier flourish in a minute....1.4 — Part 1 Chapter 4 (86% in)
- ...may just be that he is PREDESTINED to make the road, and perhaps, too, that however stupid the "direct" practical man may be, the thought sometimes will occur to him that the road almost always does lead SOMEWHERE, and that the destination it leads to is less important than the process of making it, and that the chief thing is to save the well-conducted child from despising engineering, and so giving way to the fatal idleness, which, as we all know, is the mother of all the vices.1.9 — Part 1 Chapter 9 (26% in)
- Of course, I hated my fellow clerks one and all, and I despised them all, yet at the same time I was, as it were, afraid of them.2.1 — Part 2 Chapter 1 (11% in)
- It somehow happened quite suddenly that I alternated between despising them and thinking them superior to myself.2.1 — Part 2 Chapter 1 (11% in)
- A cultivated and decent man cannot be vain without setting a fearfully high standard for himself, and without despising and almost hating himself at certain moments.2.1 — Part 2 Chapter 1 (12% in)
- But whether I despised them or thought them superior I dropped my eyes almost every time I met anyone.2.1 — Part 2 Chapter 1 (12% in)
- The characteristics of our romantic are to understand everything, TO SEE EVERYTHING AND TO SEE IT OFTEN INCOMPARABLY MORE CLEARLY THAN OUR MOST REALISTIC MINDS SEE IT; to refuse to accept anyone or anything, but at the same time not to despise anything; to give way, to yield, from policy; never to lose sight of a useful practical object (such as rent-free quarters at the government expense, pensions, decorations), to keep their eye on that object through all the enthusiasms and...2.1 — Part 2 Chapter 1 (28% in)
- I, for instance, genuinely despised my official work and did not openly abuse it simply because I was in it myself and got a salary for it.2.1 — Part 2 Chapter 1 (33% in)
- I knew, of course, that they must despise me now for my lack of success in the service, and for my having let myself sink so low, going about badly dressed and so on—which seemed to them a sign of my incapacity and insignificance.2.3 — Part 2 Chapter 3 (2% in)
- ...despair I pictured to myself how coldly and disdainfully that "scoundrel" Zverkov would meet me; with what dull-witted, invincible contempt the blockhead Trudolyubov would look at me; with what impudent rudeness the insect Ferfitchkin would snigger at me in order to curry favour with Zverkov; how completely Simonov would take it all in, and how he would despise me for the abjectness of my vanity and lack of spirit—and, worst of all, how paltry, UNLITERARY, commonplace it would all be.2.3 — Part 2 Chapter 3 (91% in)
- But for some unknown reason he despised me beyond all measure, and looked down upon me insufferably.2.8 — Part 2 Chapter 8 (54% in)
- Liza, do you despise me?2.9 — Part 2 Chapter 9 (31% in)
- Though I do not maintain positively that she understood all this distinctly; but she certainly did fully understand that I was a despicable man, and what was worse, incapable of loving her.2.10 — Part 2 Chapter 10 (7% in)
- We shall not know what to join on to, what to cling to, what to love and what to hate, what to respect and what to despise.2.10 — Part 2 Chapter 10 (94% in)
There are no more uses of "despise" in Notes from the Underground.
Typical Usage
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