Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To take away the color of; hence, to weaken the effect of by comparison; cause to pale; outvie.
- To tinge with any color different from the natural or proper one; discolor; stain: as, a sword distained with blood.
- To blot; sully; defile; tarnish.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To tinge with a different color from the natural or proper one; to stain; to discolor; to sully; to tarnish; to defile; -- used chiefly in poetry.
Examples
“My distain is not for facts, it is with your distain of progressives.”
“The place to express your distain was the ballot box.”
“I remember one cookery teacher in particular who took an extreme dislike to me for some reason or other, and who used to look down her nose at me with the kind of distain that is normally reserved for things that you find stuck to the bottom of your shoe.”
Guest post 19 – Sue Lyon-Jones on teaching the unteachable « Ken Wilson's Blog
“Promoted to Headline (H4) on 6/24/09: Don't Feed The Children yahooBuzzArticleHeadline = 'Don\'t Feed The Children'; yahooBuzzArticleSummary = 'Article: Cynthia Davis chairs two committees in the Missouri State House: Special Committee on Children and Families and the Interim Committee On Poverty; yet, according to her June 4, 2009 blog, she appears to view taxpayer-funded feeding of hungry children with the kind of distain that might even make Mr. Bumble in Dicken\'s Oliver Twist blush.”
“I know conservatives who use the word "democrat" to describe people of color with the same kind of distain they might use with uglier terms.”
“Selecting Russia and China as areas with homogenous temperature records just repeats a theme of a kind of distain for all things American or at least Western.”
“And beyond that, I think the other editors just kind of distain them.”
“Davis chairs two committees in the Missouri State House: Special Committee on Children and Families and the Interim Committee On Poverty; yet, according to her June 4, 2009 blog, she appears to view taxpayer-funded feeding of hungry children with the kind of distain that might even make Mr. Bumble in Dicken’s Oliver Twist blush.”
“The one with his pants partway down yanks them back up and looks to his buddies – then back at me, initial surprise giving way to a leering distain.”
Superhero Nation: how to write superhero novels and comic books » Thablue’s Review Forum
“I pressed a tight smile, eyeing him with distain and rebellion, walked deliberately toward him, thrust my arm out grabbed … … …. .my order of tacos from the bar and exit. tonyburton”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘distain’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Hence
Words with definitions that have a "hence" in them.
hanger, Deet, tripe, spindlelegs, fiddle, store, pluck, snap, villain, link, comedy, particular and 410 more...
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Brochettes of Random Palavery
Another of my random palavery lists for words or phrases that haven't yet found a place in one or more of my other lists.
nonexclusivity, adaptationist, paxillin, adduct, unblushingly cribbed, ptomaïne, microsievert, millisievert, too big to jail, tastemaker, tinsmithing, Nimzo-Indian and 1616 more...
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VanishedOne's Words
facipulator, fetiphobia, gules, boustrophedon, reverse boustroph..., unreal, ensiform, xiphoid, romhack, heritage, floccinaucinihili..., johnian and 1004 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for distain.

vanishedone A stain or tint, when not a typo for disdain. Mar 31, 2009