as in slighting
intended to make a person or thing seem of little importance or value
used the detractive epithet "McJob" to describe what his feckless son-in-law did for work
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for detractive
Adjective
-
But in March, U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle in Tacoma, Wash., ruled for several long-serving transgender military members who say that the ban is insulting and discriminatory and that their firing would cause lasting damage to their careers and reputations.—
Mark Sherman,
Los Angeles Times,
24 Apr. 2025 -
But to suggest that the declining birth rate is largely a function of people not knowing how their bodies work is both insulting and ignorant of the real issue.—
Erica Sloan,
SELF,
23 Apr. 2025
Adjective
-
Yet the Administration persisted with its disobedient, if not contemptuous, behavior.—
Ruth Marcus,
New Yorker,
21 Apr. 2025
-
According to an ancient Greek myth, all those who had fallen in love with the young man Narcissus were met with contemptuous rejection.—
Abigayle Ward,
Hartford Courant,
8 Mar. 2025
Adjective
-
The order, which Trump signed in private, seeks to jumpstart the mining of both U.S. and international waters as part of a push to offset China's sweeping control of the critical minerals industry.—
Ernest Scheyder and Jarrett Renshaw,
USA Today,
26 Apr. 2025
-
Enough jaw-dropping critical injuries are sustained by characters in The Raid to overcrowd the Pitt.—
Andy Crump,
Time,
26 Apr. 2025
Adjective
-
These attacks work by causing a software package to access the wrong component dependency, for instance by publishing a malicious package and giving it the same name as the legitimate one but with a later version stamp.—
Dan Goodin,
ArsTechnica,
29 Apr. 2025
-
The best way to safeguard yourself from malicious links that install malware, potentially accessing your private information, is to have antivirus software installed on all your devices.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
27 Apr. 2025
Adjective
-
The 2023 Economic Report Of The President published in March of 2023 was relatively disparaging of cryptoassets and DLTs.—
Lawrence Wintermeyer,
Forbes,
5 Dec. 2024
-
Prior to appearing on Cunningham's show on Monday, Huggins made more disparaging remarks about Xavier.—
Emily DeLetter,
The Enquirer,
10 May 2023
Adjective
-
Wise minds inside the Trump administration will hopefully choose to drop a suit first introduced during by a Biden administration reflexively disdainful of big.—
John Tamny,
Forbes.com,
10 Apr. 2025
-
Now, with Donald J. Trump installed in the White House, Mr. Zelensky is facing a new challenge: maintaining good relations with the country’s most critical ally and a president who has been disdainful toward him and skeptical of military aid.—
Andrew E. Kramer,
New York Times,
23 Jan. 2025
Adjective
-
McCurdy’s body, never claimed by a relative, ends up in an increasingly degrading series of increasingly odd entertainments.—
Jackson McHenry,
Vulture,
28 Apr. 2025
-
The draconian rules imposed upon women and girls in Afghanistan are strictly enforced with those objecting being threatened, beaten, detained and subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment in detention.—
Dr. Ewelina U. Ochab,
Forbes.com,
13 Apr. 2025
Adjective
-
Trash, elevated or otherwise, need not be a pejorative.—
Louis Peitzman,
Vulture,
26 Dec. 2024
-
In conservative circles, the pejorative label stuck.—
Meg James,
Los Angeles Times,
23 Dec. 2024
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Cite this Entry
“Detractive.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/detractive. Accessed 5 May. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share