flout

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“
But thereon the others began to mock, flout, and gird at Panurge for his cowardice.

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Definitions (17)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. transitive verb To show contempt for; scorn: flout a law; behavior that flouted convention. See Usage Note at flaunt.
  2. intransitive verb To be scornful.
  3. noun A contemptuous action or remark; an insult.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (9)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

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Examples (50)

  • When they jeer, flout, make faces, and otherwise maltreat me, I can only wait humbly at their gates, watch at the posts of their doors This story grows even when I do not write. —  Authors and Friends
  • In reference to miracles, Lahiri Mahasaya often said, “The operation of subtle laws which are unknown to people in general should not be publicly discussed or published without due discrimination.” If in these pages I have appeared to flout his cautionary words, it is because he has given me an inward reassurance. —  Autobiography of a Yogi
  • Media organisations who flout the Communications and Media Commission's mandatory code of conduct could be landed with a fine, have their equipment confiscated or be forced to make a public apology, said a document obtained by Reuters on Saturday. —  Elections - fresh news by plazoo.com
  • An Ontario Provincial Police officer was apparently overcome by the temptation to flout regulations. —  Autoblog
  • Payment of taxes and civic obligations are perceived as a virtue and those who flout this as criminals.
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

Used in the same contextWord Family

flout:   flouting ·  flouted
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (5)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Perhaps from Middle English flouten, to play the flute, from Old French flauter, from flaute, flute; see flute.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (4)

  1. from Middle English flowte (also floyte: see floit), a flute, from Old French flaüte, flahute, also fleüte, and (with false silent s) flaüste, flahuste, fleüste, later flute (later modern English flute, which has displaced the Middle English form), modern F. flûte: see further under flute.
  2. from Middle English flowten (also floyten: see floit), play on a flute, from Old French flaüter, also fleüter, and (with false silent s) fleüster, play on the flute: see flout, n., and further under flute. Cf. flout.
  3. Prob. a particular use of flout, play the flute; cf. Middle Dutch fluyten, talk smoothly or flatteringly, transitive soothe, as a horse, by blandishments, impose upon, jeer, a particular use of fluyten, modern D. fluiten = English flout, play the flute: see floit. A similar turn of thought appears in F. piper, decoy, catch with a bird-call, take in, cheat, deceive, from pipe, pipe: see pipe and peep.
  4. from flout, v.
 

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/flaʊt/
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