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Uncle Tom’s Cabin vocabulary
11 archaic vocabulary words
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contemn
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synonyms: indignify, disdain ???
tags: [archaic]
► definition
Definition:To view or treat with contempt, as mean and despicable; to reject with disdain; to despise; to scorn.Note: a generic term, and is applied especially to objects, qualities, etc., which are deemed contemptible, and but rarely to individuals; to despise is to regard or treat as mean, unbecoming, or worthless; to scorn is stronger, expressing a quick, indignant contempt; disdain is still stronger, denoting either unwarrantable pride and haughtiness or an abhorrence of what is base.Noah Webster. Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
► uses
Uses:
But why go I about to praise nature, the which as yet was never any imp so wicked and barbarous, any Turk so vile and brutish, any beast so dull and senseless, that could, or would, or durst dispraise or contemn?
John Lyly. Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit (1578)
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The women of the island have abundance of vivacity: they contemn their husbands, and are exceedingly fond of strangers,
Jonathan Swift. Gulliver’s Travels (1726)
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Topsy was at first despised and contemned by the upper servants.
Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
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When Paul calls our physical tenements "vile bodies" (see Phil. iii. 21), he reveals the old pagan idea of the body being sinful. They looked upon it as a kind of prison for the soul, and a thing to be hated and contemned as you would a tyrant with a rope around your neck.
Kersey and Lydia Graves. The Bible of Bibles (1879)
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