contemptible, a. (n.)
(kənˈtɛm(p)tɪb(ə)l)
[ad. (postcl.) L. contemptibil-is, f. contempt- ppl. stem of contemnĕre: see -ble. Cf. F. contemptible (16th c.).]
1. To be despised or held in contempt; worthy only of contempt; despicable.
| 1382 Wyclif Obad. i. 2 Thou art ful myche contemptible, or worthi to be dispisid. 1382 ― 1 Cor. vi. 4 Ordeyne ȝe tho contemptyble men, or of litil reputacioun..for to deme. 1591 Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, i. ii. 75 Heauen and our Lady gracious hath it pleas'd To shine on my contemptible estate. 1664 Power Exp. Philos. i. 1 So small and contemptible an Animal [the Flea]. 1718 Freethinker No. 59. 29 Let him live, till he grows Contemptible even to Himself. 1775 Johnson Tax. no Tyr. 30 Those not inconsiderable for number, nor contemptible for knowledge. 1874 Blackie Self-cult. 75 There are few things in social life more contemptible than a rich man who stands upon his riches. |
† 2. Exhibiting or expressing contempt; full of contempt. Obs. in educated use.
(Chiefly used to qualify opinion, idea, and the like; cf. ‘to have a poor or low opinion of any one’.)
| 1594 Quest. Profit. Concernings 23 a, The same easie and contemptible opinion he held of all creatures; the like also he did of God himselfe. 1599 Shakes. Much Ado ii. iii. 187 'Tis very possible hee'l scorne it, for the man..hath a contemptible spirit. 1697 Collier Ess. Mor. Subj. i. (1709) 188 To entertain a contemptible Opinion of any Person, cramps his Power. 1762 Gibbon Misc. Wks. (1814) V. 286 The contemptible idea I always entertained of Cellarius. 1816 G. S. Faber Orig. Pagan Idol. I. 64 [It] gives one such a thoroughly contemptible idea of the manhood of all the other descendants of Noah. |
† 3. absol. A contemptible object. Obs.
| 1654 Whitlock Zootomia 11 We bestow wonder on Contemptibles, and value Toyes. 1748 Richardson Clarissa (1811) I. 222 And the poor contemptible she calls her sister. |
4. as n. the Old Contemptibles: a popular name given to the British army of regulars and special reserve which made up the expeditionary force sent to France in the autumn of 1914, in ironical allusion to the German Emperor's alleged exhortation to his soldiers to ‘walk over General French's contemptible little army’ (published in an annexe to B.E.F. Routine Orders of 24 Sept. 1914). Also allusively.
| 1914 Observer 4 Oct. 7/5 A roar of laughter is the reception given here [sc. Paris] to the publication of the Kaiser's order to walk over Sir John French's ‘contemptible little army’. 1916 ‘Boyd Cable’ Action Front 111 The Old Contemptibles. Ibid. 208 So it was that our New Armies had a glimpse of what the old ‘Contemptible Little Army’ has seen..so often. 1917 Blackw. Mag. Aug. 140/1 The Royal Flying Corps..sent whatever machines it could lay hands on to join the old contemptibles in France. 1919 ‘Boyd Cable’ Old Contempt. Forew. p. viii, I was one o' French's bloomin' old original Contemptibles. |