1. Home
2. Idioms
3. contempt

contempt

---

---

beneath contempt

exceedingly contemptible. What you have done is beneath contempt. Your rude behavior is beneath contempt.

See also: beneath, contempt

Familiarity breeds contempt.

Prov. People do not respect someone they know well enough to know his or her faults. The movie star doesn't let anyone get to know him, because he knows that familiarity breeds contempt.

See also: breed, contempt

in contempt (of court)

showing disrespect for a judge or courtroom procedures. The bailiff ejected the lawyer who was held in contempt. The judge found the juror in contempt of court when she screamed at the attorney.

See also: contempt

Familiarity breeds contempt.

something that you say which means if you know someone very well or experience something a lot, you stop respecting them You two are going to find it difficult living and working together. Familiarity breeds contempt, you know.

See also: breed, contempt

familiarity breeds contempt

Long experience of someone or something can make one so aware of the faults as to be scornful. For example, Ten years at the same job and now he hates it-familiarity breeds contempt. The idea is much older, but the first recorded use of this expression was in Chaucer's Tale of Melibee (c. 1386).

See also: breed, contempt