Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Disdainful \Dis*dain"ful\, a. Full of disdain; expressing disdain; scornful; contemptuous; haughty.
From these
Turning disdainful to an equal good.
--Akenside.
-- Dis*dain"ful*ly, adv. -- Dis*dain"ful*ness, n.
Wiktionary
a. Showing contempt or scorn; having a pronounced lack of concern for others viewed as unworthy.
WordNet
adj. expressing extreme contempt [syn: contemptuous, insulting, scornful]
having or showing arrogant superiority to and disdain of those one views as unworthy; "some economists are disdainful of their colleagues in other social disciplines"; "haughty aristocrats"; "his lordly manners were offensive"; "walked with a prideful swagger"; "very sniffy about breaches of etiquette"; "his mother eyed my clothes with a supercilious air"; "shaggy supercilious camels"; "a more swaggering mood than usual"- W.L.Shirer [syn: haughty, lordly, prideful, sniffy, supercilious, swaggering]
Wikipedia
Usage examples of "disdainful".
Le Chiffre, with a disdainful gesture he tossed the cards face upwards on the table.
I had no committeeman, no parish to name, and was primly disdainful whenever someone suggested that I take steps selling tickets, for example, to a fund-raiser--to overcome these deficits.
With the memory of past feuds and hatreds in his mind, and predisposed against any Vaufontaine, his greeting was courteously disdainful, his manner preoccupied.
This captain was disdainful, confident with a cool carriage, the manner Luis considered best for soldiers and bullfighters.
Mollock with the disdainful expression of a cat that is expected to step in, well, mud.
The floor was of oak, almost black with age, the walls were beautifully wainscoted and carved, and here and there tall armoured figures looked down upon me in disdainful silence.
When the osprey comes skirting the hollows of the hills for cockatoos, its hunger will be unsatisfied until, by elaborate and disdainful manoeuvres, the cockatoos are induced to take flight.
Why, did not the countess, the proud Mercedes, the disdainful Catalane, who will scarcely open her lips to her oldest acquaintances, take your arm, lead you into the garden, into the private walks, and remain there for half an hour?
The shop-boy, proud of being in company with so renowned a warrior, of a lieutenant of musketeers, who approached the person of the king, began to work with an enthusiasm which was something like delirium, and to serve the customers with a disdainful haste that was noticed by several.
The Spacers, meanwhile, had grown disdainful of the people they perceived to be grubby underground dwellers.
She was delighted to hear that the masker who was with me in the parlour was the English ambassador, but she became nobly disdainful when I told her that he would gladly give a hundred guineas a month for the pleasure of visiting her in the parlour.
More than once had the Pasha of Egypt commanded that Ibrahim should have the Albanians delivered up to him, but this white woman of the mountain (grown classical not by books, but by very pride) answered only with a disdainful invitation to “come and take them.
Glancing around, she saw Arcole Blayke behind her, his expression disdainful as he eyed the chuckling soldiers.
I can assure you, my outraged young friend' - the old man's knowing, disdainful eyes shone even more effervescently as Nately's stuttering dismay increased - 'that you and your country will have a no more loyal partisan in Italy than me - but only as long as you remain in Italy.
His gaunt frame had not a gram of excess flesh on it They felt his ultrasenses flick over them in a brief, disdainful inspection before he turned back to his work.