How to Use despise in a Sentence

despise

verb
  • She was despised as a hypocrite.
  • I despise anchovies on pizza, and I refuse to eat them!
  • The man abhors them the same way the Longhorns despise the Sooners.
    Nick Moyle, ExpressNews.com, 11 Apr. 2020
  • The three subjects despise the film and want nothing to do with it.
    Ben Sales, sun-sentinel.com, 3 Nov. 2020
  • The couple first met in 2012 on the set of the sci-fi drama Her, but Phoenix thought Mara despised him.
    Lynsey Eidell, Peoplemag, 3 Nov. 2023
  • Revered in Tehran, he was despised throughout much of the region.
    Time, 3 Jan. 2020
  • Meanwhile, the smug parishioners despise the poor folks around their fine church.
    Celia Storey, Arkansas Online, 24 May 2021
  • Even the Blues Brothers had enough moral sense to despise Illinois Nazis.
    Bradley Gitz, Arkansas Online, 12 Dec. 2022
  • The players despise you, the fans pour beer all over your clothes, and the real announcers up in the booth look down on you.
    Joe Queenan, WSJ, 3 Mar. 2022
  • The event that most male gymnasts despise is his calling card.
    BostonGlobe.com, 20 June 2021
  • Charles Rangel was a left-wing congressman from New York, and despised Bush.
    Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 26 Oct. 2023
  • This is nothing to cheer about, even for those who despise the crypto sector.
    Jeff John Roberts, Fortune, 2 Nov. 2022
  • When the newspaper of record does this, it is cheered by all those who despise Donald Trump.
    Arkansas Online, 14 Dec. 2020
  • He was liked by some players, for sure, but despised by others.
    Mike Freeman, USA TODAY, 11 Jan. 2024
  • So Allen despises Colorado State, and doesn’t care who knows it.
    Mark Kiszla, The Denver Post, 20 Nov. 2019
  • Most Americans despise turning their clocks an hour forward in the spring and an hour back in the fall, polls show.
    Dave Goldiner New York Daily News (tns), al, 26 July 2022
  • Most everyone who saw it at the Paris Salon of 1865 despised it, for the subject or the technique or both.
    Jackson Arn, The New Yorker, 11 Oct. 2023
  • Some gun owners despise any form of locking up their guns.
    Bill Laitner, Detroit Free Press, 25 Jan. 2021
  • As for sides, the creamed corn—an adult take on a childhood cafeteria dish the chef despised—is how one rights a culinary wrong.
    Kayla Stewart, Bon Appétit, 23 Feb. 2024
  • Because what no one knows is that the two of them had a fling back in Season 1 and have despised each other ever since.
    USA TODAY, 22 July 2023
  • Americans despise high gas prices, and -- fair or not -- tend to blame them on whoever is in the White House.
    Matt Egan, CNN, 19 Oct. 2021
  • The same things that make many people love Ernaux make many others despise her.
    Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker, 14 Nov. 2022
  • Led by the Grand High Witch (Hathaway), these creatures despise one thing above all else: children.
    Natalie Morin, refinery29.com, 4 Oct. 2020
  • Many who despise Donald Trump imagine that his wife does, too.
    Washington Post, 17 Nov. 2020
  • And Americans are likely to despise the idea of a national sales tax, Norquist writes.
    Joel Mathis, The Week, 28 Jan. 2023
  • The Nazi movement was a chaotic mess of struggling in-groups who feared and despised one another.
    Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 18 Mar. 2024
  • Twitter play, it’s obvious from the sharp selloff in its shares that many investors despise the deal.
    Shawn Tully, Fortune, 23 May 2022
  • Others despise Trump and hope to see someone else (Mitt Romney?
    Damon Linker, The Week, 15 Mar. 2022
  • The film also does a good job explaining why some jazz critics despise him.
    John Blake, CNN, 5 Dec. 2021
  • The lesson: Building a new road won't build a new bridge to reluctant White voters who despise Blacks.
    John Blake, CNN, 1 Aug. 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'despise.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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