The Collaborative International Dictionary
Contumelious \Con`tu*me"li*ous\ (?or ?; 106), a. [L. contumeliosus.]
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Exhibiting contumely; rudely contemptuous; insolent; disdainful.
Scoffs, and scorns, and contumelious taunts.
--Shak.Curving a contumelious lip.
--Tennyson. Shameful; disgraceful. [Obs.]
--Dr. H. More. -- Con`tu*me"li*ous*ly, adv. -- Con`tu*me"li*ous*ness, n.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
late 15c., from Old French contumelieus, from Latin contumeliosus "reproachful, insolently abusive," from contumelia (see contumely).
Wiktionary
a. (context archaic literary English) rudely contemptuous; showing contumely; insolent or disdainful.
WordNet
adj. arrogantly insolent
Usage examples of "contumelious".
And he would skim through them all till he found lines in which he himself was maligned, and then, with sore heart and irritated nerves, would pause over every contumelious word.
Too often she betrayed this, by the undue vent she gave to a spiteful antipathy she had conceived against little Adele: pushing her away with some contumelious epithet if she happened to approach her.