derisively

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

It is common to frown when looking derisively at another person

derisive +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation[edit]

Adverb[edit]

derisively (comparative more derisively, superlative most derisively)

  1. In a derisive manner; demeaningly, mockingly.
    • 1789, George Campbell, The Four Gospels, Translated from the Greek. With Preliminary Dissertations, and Notes Critical and Explanatory. [...] In Two Volumes, London: Printed for A[ndrew] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, →OCLC; republished as “Art. IX. Dr. Campbell on the Four Gospels. [Article concluded.] Dissertation XII.”, in The Monthly Review; or Literary Journal, Enlarged, volume II, London: Printed for R[alph] Griffiths; and sold by T. Becket, in Pall Mall, August 1790, →OCLC, page 411:
      As ſometimes, with us, a queſtion is put deriſively, in the form of an aſſertion, when the propoſer conceives, as ſeems to have happened here, ſome abſurdity in the thing, I thought it beſt, after the example of ſo many Lat[in] interpreters, to adopt the equivocal, or rather the oblique, form of the original expreſſion. The ambiguity is not real, but apparent.
    • 1884, Anton Gindely, “The Neutrality Negotiations with the League and the Battle on the Lech”, in Andrew Ten Brook, transl., History of the Thirty Years’ War [...] With an Introductory and a Concluding Chapter by the Translator: Complete in Two Volumes, volume II, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 27 & 29 West Twenty-third Street, →OCLC, page 100:
      In the personal bearing of Gustavus Adolphus [of Sweden], more distinctly than in his high aims, it now became evident that he deemed himself free from the obligations of deference to others, and regarded his own aspirations as his sole standard of action; he expressed himself to the Marquis as disapproving of the French King's course because he did not set himself up as the reformer of his Church, and he spoke derisively of the Pope.
    • 1916, Fyodor Dostoevsky, chapter I, in Constance Garnett, transl., A Raw Youth (The Novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky; 7), London: William Heinemann, published 1956, →OCLC, part II, page 199:
      ["]And suddenly he notices the workman at a distance standing there and smiling deceitfully, that is, not deceitfully though, I'm wrong there, what is it …?" / "Derisively," Versilov prompted him discreetly. / "Derisively, yes, a little derisively, that kind, good Russian smile, you know; the great personage was in a bad humour, you understand: 'What are you waiting here for, big beard?' said he. 'Who are you?'"

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