half-scornful

“How best we shall do what, my valiant cousin?” said he, in a meaning and half-scornful voice.

Westward Ho! 2007

Hugh was excited out of recognition of his former half-scornful, half-blasé self.

Red Pottage 2004

When Rune looked at her with a lifted eyebrow, she shrugged, and cast a half-scornful look at Mathe's back.

The Lark And The Wren Lackey, Mercedes 1992

He was not a great talker, and most of the information April gathered was in the form of half-scornful, half-wistful remarks.

Blue Aloes Stories of South Africa Cynthia Stockley

Loo Loo looked at them with a half-scornful smile, and repeated to herself:

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 02, No. 08, June 1858 Various

He was clever, and gifted with readiness of speech, but something in the audience baffled him; whether it was the stolid imperturbability of the faces in the back benches, or May Webster's half-amused, half-scornful smile just below him, he could not decide.

The Village by the River H. Louisa Bedford

Tall, thin, and quite erect, always dressed with scrupulous care, distant and reserved in manner, his eye dull, his lips wearing habitually a half-scornful, half-contemptuous expression, one can readily believe him to be a man addicted to bitter enmities, but incapable of warm friendships.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 08, No. 50, December, 1861 Various

They stood aloof, half-afraid and half-scornful, and would not respond.

Mary Slessor of Calabar: Pioneer Missionary W. P. Livingstone

Something Gail had said the night before came back to her -- one of the girl's half-scornful, half-amused phrases.

The Wishing-Ring Man Margaret Widdemer 1931

He might say too familiar things, but at least there was an undertone of admiration about him very comforting in Gail's half-scornful presence.

The Wishing-Ring Man Margaret Widdemer 1931