Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To speak disparagingly of; mention with disapprobation, or some degree of censure.
- n. Disparaging speech or opinion; animadversion; censure; reproach.
- n. Synonyms Disparagement, opprobrium.
Wiktionary
- v. To notice with disapprobation or some degree of censure; to disparage, to blame.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To withdraw praise from; to notice with disapprobation or some degree of censure; to disparage; to blame.
- n. The act of dispraising; detraction; blame censure; reproach; disparagement.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the act of speaking contemptuously of
Etymologies
- Middle English dispreisen, from Old French despreiser, variant of desprisier, from Late Latin dēpretiāre; see depreciate.
Examples
“The only way to inveigle a Prince Edward Islander into saying anything in dispraise of his beloved Province is to praise it extravagantly to him.”
“But where Buckley is more than usually bird-brained is that I can quote him at equal length in dispraise of Bobby, and I, too, can cry, "Is this the phrase that caught the madman’s eye and drove him to kill?”
r_urell: William F. Buckley: Father of Modern "Conservatism"
“THis parte of _Rhetorike_, which is called dispraise, is a in - uectiue Oracion, made againste the life of any man.”
“That tongue that tells the story of thy daies,Making lascivious comments on thy sportCannot dispraise, but in a kinde of praise,Naming thy name, blesses an ill report.”
“He excused that in the best manner he could, he recorded, “& told him I did not think their company agreeable, as I had heard him say a good deal in dispraise of Indians.””
“My strategy for reviewing is to perceive the book in as precise a way as possible rather than to praise or dispraise.”
“This is an admirably concise way of indicating why mere "praise or dispraise" cannot be the most important point of book reviewing/literary criticism.”
“The praise or dispraise, such as it is, should arise organically out of the perception.”
“• Modesty: Minimize the expression of praise of self; maximize the expression of dispraise of self.”
“This appreciation is a subsidiary requirement of tact, such acts of praise or dispraise functioning as expressions of beliefs which imply costs or benefits in terms of recognition of relative status.”
Lists
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oroboros “People are never so ready to believe you as when you say things in dispraise of yourself; and you are never so much annoyed as when they take you at your word.” --Somerset Maugham (Notebooks) Aug 27, 2011