Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Mocking; jeering.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Expressing or characterized by derision; mocking; ridiculing.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Expressing, serving for, or characterized by, derision.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Expressing or characterized by derision; mocking; ridiculing.
  • adjective Deserving or provoking derision or ridicule.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective abusing vocally; expressing contempt or ridicule

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the participle stem of Latin dērīdeō ("I deride").

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Examples

  • And I've seen movies meant to be funny that have just made me cringe, as well as movies meant to scare me that have caused me to erupt in derisive laughter.

    Fave Five: Comedic Horror Movies 2009

  • Only natives were on her deck, and the man steering waved his hand in derisive greeting and farewell.

    THE PEARLS OF PARLAY 2010

  • Acutely sensitive to what people thought of him and his game, his reputation as a great player was in such disrepair it seemed like everywhere he turned, he was being called derisive nicknames.

    One Season William Fredrick Cooper 2011

  • Acutely sensitive to what people thought of him and his game, his reputation as a great player was in such disrepair it seemed like everywhere he turned, he was being called derisive nicknames.

    One Season William Fredrick Cooper 2011

  • Reviews for W. are all over the board (58% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes), but I suspect that marketing the movie as light and satirical as opposed to dark and derisive is very smart.

    Box Office Tracking: Max Payne Targets $20M | /Film 2008

  • Only natives were on her deck, and the man steering waved his hand in derisive greeting and farewell.

    The Pearls of Parlay 1912

  • It was strongly fortified and deemed so impregnable that the blind and lame were sent to man the battlements, in derisive mockery of the

    Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible 1871

  • What we are learning is that he is illiterate, as in his inability to properly read the word derisive from his teleprompter this weekend and in saying he didn't know how to say something in "Austrian".

    Latest Articles 2009

  • The fish man had explained in terms derisive, but plain, the difference between a fish man and a fisherman.

    Gentle Julia Booth Tarkington 1907

  • I suspect that we see a trace of this same expression in what is called a derisive or sardonic smile.

    The expression of the emotions in man and animals 1898

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