Crossword clues for contumely
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Contumely \Con"tu*me*ly\, n. [L. contumelia, prob. akin to contemnere to despise: cf. OF. contumelie. Cf. Contumacy.] Rudeness compounded of haughtiness and contempt; scornful insolence; despiteful treatment; disdain; contemptuousness in act or speech; disgrace.
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely.
--Shak.
Nothing aggravates tyranny so much as contumely.
--Burke.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
late 14c., from Old French contumelie, from Latin contumelia "a reproach, insult," probably related to contumax "haughty, stubborn," from com-, intensive prefix (see com-), + tumere "to swell up" (see tumid).\n\nThe unhappy man left his country forever. The howl of contumely followed him across the sea, up the Rhine, over the Alps; it gradually waxed fainter; it died away; those who had raised it began to ask each other, what, after all, was the matter about which they had been so clamorous, and wished to invite back the criminal whom they had just chased from them.
[Thomas Babington Macaulay, "Lord Byron," 1877]
Wiktionary
n. offensive and abusive language or behaviour; scorn, insult.
WordNet
n. a rude expression intended to offend or hurt; "when a student made a stupid mistake he spared them no abuse"; "they yelled insults at the visiting team" [syn: abuse, insult, revilement, vilification]
Usage examples of "contumely".
Hivites and Jebusites, treated these allies with such distrust and contumely as was quite enough to alienate them.
Amid these careless warders glided the puny form of a little old Turk, poorly dressed like a marabout or santon of the desert--a sort of enthusiasts, who sometimes ventured into the camp of the Crusaders, though treated always with contumely, and often with violence.
Jerome in his Contra Iouinianum says: This Socrates had two wives, whom he endured with much patience, but could not be rid of their contumelies and clamorous vituperations.
Their heads were stuck upon spears and led the procession, whilst the royal captives who followed in the train were slowly moved along, amidst the horrid yells, and shrilling screams, and frantic dances, and infamous contumelies, and all the unutterable abominations of the furies of hell in the abused shape of the vilest of women.