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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
flout
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
flout a law (=deliberately disobey a law)
▪ Employers who flout the law should be properly punished.
flout a rule (=break it, without trying to hide what you are doing)
▪ The party continues to flout its own rules.
flout convention (=deliberately not do what is accepted or normal)
▪ I was determined to flout convention when it came to the funeral arrangements.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
deliberately
▪ Michael Kalisher, for Birds Eye, said there was no way the company had deliberately flouted the law.
▪ If some one deliberately flouts the law in that manner, they only have themselves to blame for the consequences.
▪ Sometimes we deliberately flout the charge to be relevant: to signal embarrassment or a desire to change the subject.
■ NOUN
law
▪ Michael Kalisher, for Birds Eye, said there was no way the company had deliberately flouted the law.
▪ He's flouted the law and failed to take advise.
▪ Will he condemn those who have flouted the law simply for commercial gain?
▪ It is sometimes said that the offender must have been deliberately and flagrantly flouting the law.
▪ If some one deliberately flouts the law in that manner, they only have themselves to blame for the consequences.
▪ Last year's average fine of £297 is too low, particularly for those who flout the law continuously.
▪ Helmut Kohl, chancellor from 1982-98, has been castigated for flouting the party finance laws he enacted.
▪ Read in studio Police are targetting heavy goods vehicles in a crackdown on drivers who're flouting the law.
rule
▪ Short stay charges and places in premium car parks have risen and drivers caught flouting the rules face a hefty £30 fine.
▪ At that time, church officials said Yakunin flouted a rule barring priests from being involved in politics.
▪ But the Party continues to flout its own rules and the basic principles of parliamentary democracy.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Many bar owners flout the laws on under-age drinking.
▪ Thousands of people are killed on our roads every year, yet a majority of us insist on flouting speed limits.
▪ Too many people regularly flout traffic laws.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Accusations have been made that bus drivers already flout speed limits on the estate.
▪ He especially enjoyed this party because it was flouting tradition -- it was four years after its customary time.
▪ It was because he openly flouted racist conventions of the time, which said he had to stay in his place.
▪ Short stay charges and places in premium car parks have risen and drivers caught flouting the rules face a hefty £30 fine.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Flout

Flout \Flout\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Flouted; p. pr. & vb. n. Flouting.] [OD. fluyten to play the flute, to jeer, D. fluiten, fr. fluit, fr. French. See Flute.] To mock or insult; to treat with contempt.

Phillida flouts me.
--Walton.

Three gaudy standards flout the pale blue sky.
--Byron.

Flout

Flout \Flout\, v. i. To practice mocking; to behave with contempt; to sneer; to fleer; -- often with at.

Fleer and gibe, and laugh and flout.
--Swift.

Flout

Flout \Flout\, n. A mock; an insult.

Who put your beauty to this flout and scorn.
--Tennyson.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
flout

"treat with disdain or contempt" (transitive), 1550s, intransitive sense "mock, jeer, scoff" is from 1570s; of uncertain origin; perhaps a special use of Middle English flowten "to play the flute" (compare Middle Dutch fluyten "to play the flute," also "to jeer"). Related: Flouted; flouting.

Wiktionary
flout

n. The act by which something is flouted. vb. 1 To express contempt for the rules by word or action. 2 To scorn.

WordNet
flout
  1. v. treat with contemptuous disregard; "flout the rules" [syn: scoff]

  2. laugh at with contempt and derision; "The crowd jeered at the speaker" [syn: jeer, scoff, barrack, gibe]

Usage examples of "flout".

Our cavalla had to be forced to embrace the musketry and marksmanship that flouted the traditions of old knighthood.

A combination of cheeseparing cautionusing privateers for outsystem operations cost less than funding a real space navyand exuberant flouting of the rules, such as they were, that governed such uses.

If she were not merely a Queen of Scotland but also a Dauphine of France they would think twice about flouting her in favour of the bastard.

He shuddered to think of the propaganda victory Gandhi would win if he got away with flouting German ordinances.

Although Artaxerxes was grateful to Megabyzus for saving his life, he was outraged that an ancient custom had been flouted.

Saddam to undermine the inspections himself, flout the authority of the Security Council, and make the United States look impotent.

And Master Lynch bade him have a care to flout and witwanton as the god self was angered for his hellprate and paganry.

I know them, yea,And what they weigh, even to the utmost scruple,--Scrambling, out-facing, fashion-monging boys,That lie and cog and flout, deprave and slander,Go anticly, show outward hideousness,And speak off half a dozen dangerous words,How they might hurt their enemies, if they durst.

I know them, yea, And what they weigh, even to the utmost scruple, -- Scrambling, out-facing, fashion-monging boys, That lie and cog and flout, deprave and slander, Go anticly, show outward hideousness, And speak off half a dozen dangerous words, How they might hurt their enemies, if they durst.

The remains of the shapeshifter fell dutifully to the ground, the biomimetic cells unable any longer to alter form, unable to flout gravity.

Anyone attempting to flout this custom is promptly blackjacked by Fast Eddie the piano player and dumped in the alley.

You can fuck around with masculinity and femininity by heightening them, by flattening them, by caricaturing them, by placing them ostentatiously in quotation marks, or by crossing or conflating them in ways that violently flout our usual expectations.

There had been small breaches of conduct to be concealed from her elders, jeal­ous girls to be flouted or placated, styles of dresses and materials to be chosen, different coiffures to be tried and, oh, so many, many other matters to be decided!

Then they flouted me with my dejections, welcomed me to the place, wished me joy, bid me have a good heart, not to be cast down, things might not be so bad as I feared, and the like.

I will do so therefore in the present case by telling you that I consider your boasts of the splendour of your city and of it's superb hackney coaches as a flout, and declaring that would not give the polite, self-denying, feeling, hospitable, goodhumoured people of this country and their amability in every point of view, (tho' it must be confessed our streets are somewhat dirty, and our fiacres rather indifferent) for ten such races of rich, proud, hectoring, swearing, squibbing, carnivorous animals as those among whom you are.