Adjacent Words

Despicable definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

DESPICABLE, a. [Low L. To look down, to despise; to look.] That may be or deserves to be despised; contemptible; mean; vile; worthless; applicable equally to persons and things; as a despicable man; despicable company; a despicable gift.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: morally reprehensible; "would do something as despicable as murder"; "ugly crimes"; "the vile development of slavery appalled them"; "a slimy little liar" [syn: despicable, ugly, vile, slimy, unworthy, worthless, wretched]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Late Latin despicabilis, from Latin despicari to despise Date: 1553 deserving to be despised ; so worthless or obnoxious as to rouse moral indignation <despicable behavior> Synonyms: see contemptible • despicableness noun • despicably adverb

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. vile; contemptible, esp. morally. Derivatives: despicably adv. Etymology: LL despicabilis f. despicari (as DE-, specere look at)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Despicable Des"pi*ca*ble, a. [L. despicabilis, fr. despicari to despise; akin to despicere. See Despise.] Fit or deserving to be despised; contemptible; mean; vile; worthless; as, a despicable man; despicable company; a despicable gift. Syn: Contemptible; mean; vile; worthless; pitiful; paltry; sordid; low; base. See Contemptible.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

If you say that a person or action is despicable, you are emphasizing that they are extremely nasty, cruel, or evil. The Minister said the bombing was a despicable crime. ADJ [emphasis]

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. Contemptible, base, mean, abject, vile, worthless, low, paltry, pitiful.

Moby Thesaurus

abhorrent, abject, abominable, arrant, atrocious, awful, base, beastly, beggarly, below contempt, beneath contempt, blameworthy, brutal, cheap, cheesy, common, contemptible, crude, crummy, debased, degraded, deplorable, depraved, detestable, dire, dirty, disgraceful, disgusting, disreputable, dreadful, egregious, enormous, execrable, fetid, filthy, flagrant, forbidding, foul, fulsome, gaudy, gimcracky, grave, grievous, gross, hateful, heinous, horrible, horrid, ignoble, ignominious, infamous, lamentable, little, loathsome, lousy, low, low-down, lumpen, malodorous, mangy, mean, measly, mephitic, meretricious, miasmal, miasmic, miserable, monstrous, nasty, nauseating, nefarious, noisome, notorious, noxious, objectionable, obnoxious, obscene, odious, offensive, outrageous, paltry, pathetic, petty, pitiable, pitiful, poky, poor, rank, rebarbative, regrettable, repellent, reprehensible, reptilian, repugnant, repulsive, revolting, rotten, rubbishy, sad, scabby, scandalous, schlock, scrubby, scruffy, scummy, scurvy, scuzzy, shabby, shameful, shameless, shocking, shoddy, sickening, small, sordid, sorry, squalid, stinking, terrible, too bad, trashy, trumpery, two-for-a-cent, two-for-a-penny, twopenny, twopenny-halfpenny, ugly, unclean, unmentionable, valueless, vile, villainous, woeful, worst, worthless, wretched