derisive

English

WOTD – 2 May 2008

Etymology

From the participle stem of Latin dērīdeō (I deride) + -ive.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /dɪˈɹaɪ.sɪv/, /dɪˈɹɪ.sɪv/
  • (US) IPA(key): /dɪˈraɪsɪv/
    • Audio (US):(file)
  • Audio (General Australian):(file)
  • Hyphenation: de‧ri‧sive
  • Rhymes: -aɪsɪv

Adjective

derisive (comparative more derisive, superlative most derisive)

  1. Expressing or characterized by derision; mocking; ridiculing.
    The critic's review of the film was derisive.
    • 2017 January 12, Jesse Hassenger, “A literal monster truck is far from the stupidest thing about Monster Trucks”, in The Onion AV Club[1], archived from the original on 27 January 2017:
      It’s a humiliating moment, to be sure. Tripp is riding to school with a bunch of other kids when a classmate pulls up alongside the bus driving a sweet, tricked-out truck, attractive young lady at his side, and shoots Tripp a derisive look.
  2. Deserving or provoking derision or ridicule.
    The plot of the film was so derisive that the audience began to jeer.

Synonyms

Antonyms

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Translations

Noun

derisive (plural derisives)

  1. (rare) A derisive remark.
    • 1894, Samuel Rutherford Crockett, The Stickit Minister: And Some Common Men, page 173:
      The three lambs stood at bay, huddled close together, and helplessly bleated feeble derisives at the wolf who has headed them off from safety; but their polite and Englishy tone was a source of Homeric laughter to this Thersites of the Pleasance.
    • 1962, Homer Floyd Fansler, History of Tucker County, West Virginia, page 192:
      He leaped over the embankment at the river's edge in such a manner that it appeared he had been fatally hit and was down for good; the Yankees shouting such derisives as "Another damn Rebel for hell," "Goodbye, you Rebel bastard," etc., didn't go right away to rob the corpse.
    • 2017, Bogdadn Lesnik, Countering Discrimination in Social Work:
      Indeed, the power inherent in the labels attributed to them has repeatedly transformed these terms from allegedly scientific ones into colloquial derisives.

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