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To view or treat with contempt, as mean and despicable; to reject with disdain; to despise; to scorn. Thy pompous delicacies I contemn. Milton. One who contemned divine and human laws. Dryden.

Worthy of contempt; deserving of scorn or disdain; mean; vile; despicable. Milton. The arguments of tyranny are ascontemptible as its force is dreadful. Burke.

Despicable; contemptible. [R.]

The great willow-herb (Epilobium spicatum).

Absurd; ridiculous; despicable; contemptible. A foolish figure he must make. Prior.

A despicable fellow. [Prov. Eng.] Brockett.

Despicable. [Obs.]

herb. Milton. Herb bennet. (Bot.) See Bennet. -- Herb Christopher (Bot.), an herb (Actæa spicata), whose root is used in nervous diseases; the baneberry. The name is occasionally given to other plants, as the royal fern, the wood betony, etc. -- Herb Gerard (Bot.), the goutweed; -- so called in honor of St. Gerard, w…

A despicable person. "Boy! false hound!" Shak.

Deserving ignominy; despicable. One single, obscure, ignominious projector. Swift.

south of Europe. It yields and oil used in medicine and perfumery. The Spike lavender (L. Spica) yields a coarser oil (oil of spike), used in the arts.

Of little value or account; worthy of little or no regard; contemptible; despicable. The Roman legions and great Cæsar found Our fathers no mean foes. J. Philips.

A despicable person; a wretch. [Obs.] Shak.

Worthless; mean; despicable; as, a miserable fellow; a miserable dinner. Miserable comforters are ye all. Job xvi. 2.

Mean; vile; worthless; despicable; contemptible; pitiful; trifling; as, a paltry excuse; paltry gold. Cowper. The paltry prize is hardly worth the cost. Byron.

a very pale and delicate blue-gray color. -- Pearl millet, Egyptian millet (Penicillaria spicata). -- Pearl moss. See Carrageen. -- Pearl moth (Zoöl.), any moth of the genus Margaritia; -- so called on account of its pearly color. -- Pearl oyster (Zoöl.), any one of several species of large tropical marine bivalve…

Sagacity; perspicacity.

To be pitied for littleness or meanness; miserable; paltry; contemptible; despicable. That's villainous, and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Shak.

ass (Bot.), a name given to several slender grasses (as Aristida dichotoma, and Danthonia spicata) which often spring up on old and worn-out fields.

Mean; despicable; contemptible; -- used ironically; as, a pretty trick; a pretty fellow.