half-contemptuous

I remember also a distinct wilfulness in my attitude and something half-contemptuous in my words as I laid my hand on the knob of the front door.

The Arrow of Gold 2006

“Well, I see you are not one of the chicken-hearted brigade,” Anton Stepanitch interrupted in a half-contemptuous, half-condescending tone!

The Dog 2006

Her irregular education, strange acquaintances and habits, the constant presence of her mother, the poverty and disorder in their house, everything, from the very liberty the young girl enjoyed, with the consciousness of her superiority to the people around her, had developed in her a sort of half-contemptuous carelessness and lack of fastidiousness.

First Love 2006

She frowned down upon me, brows drawn to a straight line over bright, half-contemptuous eyes.

Dwellers in the Mirage 2004

Wolzogen, nonchalantly stretching his legs, approached Kutuzov with a half-contemptuous smile on his lips, scarcely touching the peak of his cap.

War and Peace 2003

Portly but pale, with a face half-studious, half-contemptuous, he had a frowning senatorial air.

LEE’S LIEUTENANTS DOUGLAS SOUTHALL FREEMAN 2001

Portly but pale, with a face half-studious, half-contemptuous, he had a frowning senatorial air.

LEE’S LIEUTENANTS DOUGLAS SOUTHALL FREEMAN 2001

She could only stare over the banisters at him and watch his face change from harsh tenseness to a half-contemptuous, half-ingratiating smile.

Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell 1996

All the other men she had known she could dismiss with a half-contemptuous “What a child!”

Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell 1996

All the other men she had known she could dismiss with a half-contemptuous “What a child!”

Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell 1996