All 12 Uses
contempt
in
The Power and the Glory, by Graham Greene by Greene
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- The voice said with contempt, "You believers are all the same."
Chpt 2.3 *contempt = lack of respect
- 'Nothing to report,' the lieutenant said with contempt.†
Chpt 1.2
- He had a sort of contempt for the lower clergy, and right up to the last he was explaining his rank.†
Chpt 1.2
- When he had gone some way they could see him pause and spit; he had not been discourteous, he had waited till he supposed that they no longer watched him before he got rid of his hatred and contempt for a different way of life, for ease, safety, toleration, and complacency.†
Chpt 1.3
- Contempt and safety waited for him down by the quay: he wanted to get away.†
Chpt 1.4
- She looked him up and down with a kind of contempt.†
Chpt 2.1
- The child stood there, watching him with acuteness and contempt.†
Chpt 2.1
- The day before he had asked apprehensively, 'Are there no snakes?' and Mr Lehr had grunted contemptuously that if there were any snakes they'd pretty soon get out of the way.†
Chpt 3.1
- They had probably let him have far too much beer in the capital, and the priest thought, with an odd touch of contemptuous affection, of how much had happened to them both since that first encounter in a village of which he didn't even know the name — the half-caste lying there in the hot noonday rocking his hammock with one naked yellow foot.†
Chpt 3.2
- He said with contempt, 'So you have a child?'†
Chpt 3.3
- The lieutenant said contemptuously, 'A game for gamblers-or children.'†
Chpt 3.3
- Oh, Padre Jose,' the lieutenant said with contempt, 'he's no good for you.†
Chpt 3.3
Definitions:
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(1)
(contempt as in: feels contempt towards her) lack of respect for someone or something thought inferior -- often accompanied by a feeling of dislike or disgustA famous saying, "familiarity breeds contempt" comes from Aesop's fable, "The Fox and the Lion". (6th century BC)
When first the Fox saw the Lion he was terribly frightened, and ran away and hid himself in the wood. Next time however he came near the King of Beasts he stopped at a safe distance and watched him pass by. The third time they came near one another the Fox went straight up to the Lion and passed the time of day with him, asking him how his family were, and when he should have the pleasure of seeing him again; then turning his tail, he parted from the Lion without much ceremony.
The moral is traditionally, "Familiarity breeds contempt"; though an alternative moral is "Acquaintance softens prejudices." -
(2)
(contempt as in: held in contempt of court) the crime of willful disobedience to or disrespect for the authority of a court or legislative bodyFormally, this is called "contempt of court," but it is often shortened as just "contempt."
- (3) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)