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What is "derisory"

Crossword clues for derisory

derisory
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
derisory
adjective
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ derisory comments
▪ Government increases in health expenditure are derisory.
▪ The company's profits increased 35%, but they've only offered a derisory 2.5% pay increase.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ All my attention focused on the commissioning fee, which I regarded as derisory.
▪ And only a derisory 3% said they would want to live in Oxford after the war.
▪ First, a derisory vote, after a contest creating a lot of thoroughly unhelpful aggravation.
▪ I would be glad to exchange them for the same face value as the increasingly worthless and derisory folding stuff.
▪ In last week's case Jackson was fined a derisory £900 on three charges involving an Austin Montego.
▪ That is a derisory total for a committee monitoring agreements on tobacco advertising and sponsorship.
▪ The number of peasant members was derisory.
▪ This crude critical ploy is derisory.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Derisory

Derisory \De*ri"so*ry\, a. [L. derisorius: cf. F. d['e]risoire.] Derisive; mocking.
--Shaftesbury.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
derisory

1610s, from Latin derisorius, from derisor "derider," agent noun from deridere (see deride).

Wiktionary
derisory

a. 1 Laughably small or inadequate. 2 derisive; laughable; ridiculous

WordNet
derisory

adj. completely devoid of wisdom or good sense; "the absurd excuse that the dog ate his homework"; "that's a cockeyed idea"; "ask a nonsensical question and get a nonsensical answer"; "a contribution so small as to be laughable"; "it is ludicrous to call a cottage a mansion"; "a preposterous attempt to turn back the pages of history"; "her conceited assumption of universal interest in her rather dull children was ridiculous" [syn: absurd, cockeyed, idiotic, laughable, ludicrous, nonsensical, preposterous, ridiculous]

Usage examples of "derisory".

In the last forty-eight hours, momentous events had happened in his life: his father had given him a derisory patrimony, his mother had cursed his father, and he had tried to murder his brother-but none of these things occupied his mind.

Animal Farm, borrowing the most popular of the derisory nicknames it had accumulated during the surveillance.

Three thousand Venerian consols was a derisory offer, even if Sal had been willing to deal.

Of Jinx Fairchild's friends Bobo is the loudest and the brawliest, and Iris has always shied away from something derisory in his manner.