overbearing suggests a tyrannical manner or an intolerable insolence.
an overbearing supervisor
supercilious implies a cool, patronizing haughtiness.
an aloof and supercilious manner
disdainful suggests a more active and openly scornful superciliousness.
disdainful of their social inferiors
Examples of disdainful in a Sentence
He looked at the waiter with a disdainful glare.
a disdainful attitude toward authority
Recent Examples on the WebThe girl's disdainful parents, unimpressed with her intelligence and independent spirit, decide to send her to Crunchem Hall, where the ruthless headmistress (Emma Thompson) specializes in bringing troublemaking tykes into line.—Danny Horn, EW.com, 31 Jan. 2024 This might not matter to the protesters, who are largely disdainful of the political system and want little to do with it — but such a position comes with measurable political costs.—Ross Barkan, New York Times, 7 Feb. 2024 Even DiCaprio was, at times, openly disdainful of his adolescent admirers; members of his entourage were known to dump water on fans loitering outside his apartment building.—Meredith Blake, Los Angeles Times, 20 Oct. 2023 Like their Orange County brethren Social Distortion from down the freeway in Fullerton, Bad Religion was made up of high school students disdainful of high school.—David L. Coddon, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Sep. 2023 The two cops are linked here, too, since Liz continues to be utterly disdainful of Leah’s attempts to connect with her heritage, while Navarro’s mother never told Evangeline what her Inupiaq name is.—Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 28 Jan. 2024 Concerns about appearing disdainful of holiday spirit did not rise to that level.—Ronda Kaysen, New York Times, 21 Dec. 2023 This is not a disdainful portrait of an elderly American couple in the vein of Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections.—Jasmine Liu, The New Republic, 24 Oct. 2023 Since Navalny’s imprisonment, Russia has taken a sharp authoritarian turn, arresting and jailing thousands of activists and antiwar figures, and raising fears for his survival in the hands of an isolated government disdainful of Western criticism.—Robyn Dixon, Washington Post, 14 Apr. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'disdainful.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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