Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Deserving of contempt or scorn; vile.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • That may be or deserves to be despised; contemptible; base; vile; worthless: applicable equally to persons and things: as, a despicable man; a despicable gift.
  • Synonyms Paltry, Pitiful, etc. See contemptible.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Fit or deserving to be despised; contemptible; mean; vile; worthless

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Fit or deserving to be despised; contemptible; mean; vile; worthless

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective morally reprehensible

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Late Latin dēspicābilis, from Latin dēspicārī, to despise; see spek- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

1550s, from Late Latin despicabilis, from Latin dēspiciō ("I despise"), from de ("down") + speciō ("I look at, behold").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word despicable.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.