▪ I. dispraise, n.
(dɪsˈpreɪz)
[f. dis- 9 + praise n.; or f. dispraise v. after praise n. Cf. OF. despriz, despris, and see disprize n.]
1. The action or fact of dispraising; the opposite of praise; expression of disparagement; blame, censure.
| 1509 Hawes Past. Pleas. xi. vi, The morall sense they cloke full subtyly, In prayse or dysprayse, as it is reasonable. 1580 North Plutarch (1676) 218 He began to make a long Oration in his dispraise. 1667 Milton P.L. xi. 167 To mee reproach Rather belongs, distrust, and all dispraise. 1783 Ld. Hailes Antiq. Chr. Ch. i. 3 Does not necessarily imply either praise or dispraise. 1852 Tennyson Ode Wellington 73 In praise and in dispraise the same, A man of well-attemper'd frame. 1852 C. M. Yonge Cameos (1877) II. xix. 197 Charles VI would not hear a word in his dispraise. |
2. with a and pl. An act or instance of dispraising or blaming. b. A cause of blame, discredit, or disgrace.
| 1535 Coverdale Wisd. iv, heading, A disprayse of the wicked. 1580 Sidney Arcadia iii. (1724) II. 718 Little did the melancholick Shepherd regard either his dispraises, or the other's praises. 1641 Hinde J. Bruen xli. 129 To bee praised of a man utterly unworthy of any praise himselfe, is a dispraise. 1754 Richardson Grandison I. xxxvi. 257 How far from a dispraise in this humane consideration. 1872 Howells Wedd. Journ. 33 As they twittered their little dispraises. |
▪ II. dispraise, v.
(dɪsˈpreɪz)
Forms: 4–5 dispreise-n, 4–7 disprayse, 5 despreise, des-, dyspreyse, 5–6 dysprayse, 5–7 despraise, 6 dispreyse, -prease, 6–7 disprase, 4– dispraise.
[a. OF. despreisier, -preiser, -prisier, = Pr. desprezar, despreciar, Sp. despreciar, It. disprezzare:—late L. or Romanic type *dispretiāre for cl.L. dēpretiāre: see depreciate and de- I. 6.
In OF., originally, the tonic stem had -pris-, the atonic -preis-, hence inf. despreisier, 3 sing. pr. desprise. But these distinctions were subseq. confused, and at length levelled under the -pris- form: thence Eng. disprize.]
1. trans. To do the opposite of to praise; to speak of with disparagement, depreciation, blame, or disapprobation; to blame, censure.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 27585 (Cott.) We agh ilk [fallen] man upraise, and in vr hert vrself dispraise. c 1386 Chaucer Melib. ¶105 (Harl.) Who-so wil haue Sapience schal no man desprayse. c 1400 Rom. Rose 1053 For to dispreisen, and to blame That best deserven love and name. 1494 Fabyan Chron. iv. lxix. 47 She dispraysed hym in that, that he worshypped a man y{supt} was nayled vpon a Crosse. 1547–64 Bauldwin Mor. Philos. (Palfr.) 166 Doe not that thy selfe, which thou dispraisest in another. 1612 Woodall Surg. Mate Pref. Wks. (1653) 12 Foxes dispraise the grapes they cannot reach. 1616 B. Jonson Epigr. i. lii. To Censorious Courtling, I rather thou should'st utterly Dispraise my Work, than praise it frostily. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 288 ¶3 While they like my Wares they may dispraise my Writing. 1850 W. Irving Goldsmith xxvi. 259 Johnson, who..rarely praised or dispraised things by halves. 1852 Robertson Lect. 177 Men who cannot praise Dryden without dispraising Coleridge. |
| absol. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 235/1 To fore thys tyme I despreysed and scorned and wend there had ben none other lyf than this. c 1600 Shakes. Sonn. xcv, That tongue that tells the story of thy daies..Cannot dispraise. 1650 Fuller Pisgah i. vi. 16 When he intends to praise or dis⁓praise, he will doe it to the purpose. 1878 Miss Tytler Anne Ascue i. in Sunday Mag. 36 As for you or any other..I will not dispraise, because I know you not. |
† 2. To speak of depreciatingly or contemptuously; to depreciate, despise. Obs.
| c 1386 Chaucer Melib. ¶5 Whan Prudence had herd hire husbond avaunte him of his richesse..dispreising the power of his adversaries. 1475 Bk. Noblesse 59 Fabius despraised renommee and vayne glorie, but onlie gafe his solicitude, thought, and his bisy cure about the comon profit of Rome. c 1500 Melusine xx. 113 Dyspreyse not your enmyes though they be litel, but make euer good watche. |
3. To bring dispraise upon, to cause to be depreciated or despised. rare.
| 1879 E. Arnold Lt. Asia viii. (1881) 226 These riches shall not fade away in life, Nor any death dispraise. |
Hence disˈpraised ppl. a.; disˈpraising vbl. n. and ppl. a.; disˈpraisingly adv.
| c 1386 Chaucer Pars. T. ¶423 In dispreisynge of hym that men preise. 1483 Cath. Angl. 101/2 Dispraysinge, deprauacio. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 238 All y⊇ crymes of y⊇ tonge, as sclaunders, detraccyons..or dis⁓praysynges, etc. 1552 Huloet, Dispraysed, despectus, despicatus, obtrectatus. 1604 Shakes. Oth. iii. iii. 72 When I haue spoke of you dispraisingly. 1839 Fraser's Mag. XIX. 31 [He] is dispraisingly sketched by the authoress. |