How to Use scornful in a Sentence

scornful

adjective
Definition of scornfulnext
Synonyms for scornfulnext
  • He's scornful of anyone who disagrees with his political beliefs.
  • Back to the estate, heaped huge and black and scornful against the starless sky.
    — Lauren Groff, The New Yorker, 27 Apr. 2021
  • Again and again his scornful remarks cut you in half, again and again his laughter pulls the rug from under you.
    — Claire-Louise Bennett, Harper’s Magazine , 17 Aug. 2022
  • In a scornful voice, flat with despair, Charlotte told her not to be ridiculous.
    — Tessa Hadley, The New Yorker, 21 Mar. 2022
  • Gideon trails off, caught up in his pitying and scornful thoughts about his former tenants.
    — Jon Ronson, GQ, 22 June 2017
  • Jack is scornful of any local band that’s even rumored to be signing to a major label deal.
    — Carolyn Kellogg, BostonGlobe.com, 1 Dec. 2022
  • The charges against Shah and her assistant Stuart Smith are serious, and the language in the indictment was scornful.
    — Kate Aurthur, Variety, 11 Sep. 2021
  • The scornful cat looked him carefully in the eye, still holding that same unhidden venom.
    — Autumn Blodgett, Anchorage Daily News, 20 Aug. 2011
  • That drew scornful responses from legal scholars and even some pushback from the White House lawyer handling the Russia case.
    — Albert R. Hunt, Anchorage Daily News, 12 Dec. 2017
  • Yes, dedicated Coors or Jack Daniels drinkers are scornful of other brands.
    — Edward Lotterman, Twin Cities, 25 Mar. 2017
  • Jen Psaki's scornful response to the idea of free at-home tests reflects just how shortsighted the U.S. government's response to Covid-19 still is.
    — Melody Schreiber, The New Republic, 8 Dec. 2021
  • As a businessman, President Trump was a frequent and scornful critic of the concept of climate change.
    — Peter Baker, New York Times, 2 June 2017
  • There are good reasons to be scornful of this Machiavellian market—and better reasons to double down on the fight to make carbon credits count.
    — Stephen Lezak, The New Republic, 9 Nov. 2021
  • That assertion generates a ripple of scornful noise in the theater.
    — Lawrence Specker | Lspecker@al.com, al, 19 Apr. 2020
  • Gorsuch writes clear opinions that are easy to read, but without the sarcastic jabs and scornful put-downs that were characteristic of Scalia.
    — David G. Savage, Los Angeles Times, 9 Sep. 2019
  • Many critics at the Venice Film Festival last week were scornful: a grandiose, self-aggrandizing statement like this makes for an easy target.
    — A.o. Scott, New York Times, 5 Sep. 2022
  • Increasingly, the article implied, the neighbors were envious, rather than scornful, of the Neutra on the block.
    — Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 20 Sep. 2021
  • In what was meant to be a triumphant moment, some found themselves the targets of skeptical or even scornful comments from people opposed to vaccines.
    — Sarah Frier, Bloomberg.com, 24 Dec. 2020
  • By then the family estate was his; the artist-rebel had become a devout Roman Catholic and vehement Provençal nativist, scornful of Paris, though glad for its approval.
    — New York Times, 20 June 2018
  • Kendrick pointed out that although some are scornful of adults reading YA, no one would fault her father for his interest in popular westerns.
    — Jonathan Hunley, Washington Post, 16 July 2017
  • Though the American middle class was still scornful of the whole idea of movies (and suspicious of their moral effects), Griffith had done much to improve the reputation of the upstart industry.
    — Longreads, 15 May 2018
  • Faced with angry alumni and a scornful public, Nikias managed to settle the crisis with calls for more transparency and tougher ethical standards.
    — Thomas Curwen, latimes.com, 26 May 2018
  • Some styles are scornful tags given by others (helicopter), designations worn with pride (gentle), and some are somewhat tongue-in-cheek (looking at you, scrunchy).
    — Elizabeth Chang, Washington Post, 2 Feb. 2023
  • The 51-year-old gospel singer took to social media on Saturday (March 13) to share a video of himself expressing regret over a scornful phone conversation with his son Kerrion Franklin.
    — Mitchell Peters, Billboard, 14 Mar. 2021
  • Most crypto acolytes are scornful of a government-run solution, preferring the type of private solutions worked on by Crypto Isle denizens.
    — Leo Schwartz, Fortune, 22 Nov. 2022
  • That remark prompted a number of scornful responses from critics.
    — New York Times, 20 July 2021
  • After Tufts announced last month that the university would require students to wear masks through the end of the final exam season, the app was inundated with posts that were scornful of students with health issues.
    — New York Times, 27 May 2022
  • Born in Boston in 1722 and educated at Harvard College under the scornful eyes of much wealthier students, Adams began his public life by moving from one failure to the next.
    — Steve Donoghue, The Christian Science Monitor, 15 Dec. 2022
  • The scornful tone throughout the debate even crept into the candidates’ closing statements, which are usually optimistic.
    — Patrick Healy and Jonathan Martin, New York Times, 6 Feb. 2016
  • Lou is his father, once so distant and scornful of his fragile son, now softer and benign, proffering unwanted gifts that Sedaris has learned are easier for all concerned to accept with grace.
    — Alan Cumming, New York Times, 25 May 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'scornful.' 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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