CONTEMPTIBLE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does contemptible mean? 

• CONTEMPTIBLE (adjective)
  The adjective CONTEMPTIBLE has 1 sense:

1. deserving of contempt or scorn

  Familiarity information: CONTEMPTIBLE used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONTEMPTIBLE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Deserving of contempt or scorn

Similar:

abject; low; low-down; miserable; scummy; scurvy (of the most contemptible kind)

bastardly; mean (of no value or worth)

pathetic; pitiable; pitiful (inspiring mixed contempt and pity)

Also:

ignoble (completely lacking nobility in character or quality or purpose)

unworthy (lacking in value or merit)

Antonym:

estimable (deserving of respect or high regard)

Derivation:

contemptibility (unworthiness by virtue of lacking higher values)

 Context examples 

However, the king treated him with tenderness, as a well-meaning man, but of a low contemptible understanding.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

It is just a phase of the contemptible ignorance of the times.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Harriet's claims to marry well are not so contemptible as you represent them.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The event has proved, that I was a cunning fool, providing with great circumspection for a possible opportunity of making myself contemptible and wretched for ever.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Miss Ward's match, indeed, when it came to the point, was not contemptible: Sir Thomas being happily able to give his friend an income in the living of Mansfield; and Mr. and Mrs. Norris began their career of conjugal felicity with very little less than a thousand a year.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

How contemptible!

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

I grant you, that any of them but Charles would be a very shocking match for Henrietta, and indeed it could not be; he is the only one that could be possible; but he is a very good-natured, good sort of a fellow; and whenever Winthrop comes into his hands, he will make a different sort of place of it, and live in a very different sort of way; and with that property, he will never be a contemptible man—good, freehold property.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Never mind, Harriet, I shall not be a poor old maid; and it is poverty only which makes celibacy contemptible to a generous public!

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I told him, I had likewise observed another thing, that, when I first got into the ship, and the sailors stood all about me, I thought they were the most little contemptible creatures I had ever beheld.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

It did appear—there was no concealing it—exactly like the pretence of being in love with her, instead of Harriet; an inconstancy, if real, the most contemptible and abominable! and she had difficulty in behaving with temper.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)