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A worthless, snarling fellow; -- used in contempt. What would you have, you curs, That like nor peace nor war Shak.

A flag; an ensign; -- in contempt. [Obs.] Shak. Behind the curtain, in concealment; in secret. -- Curtain lecture, a querulous lecture given by a wife to her husband within the bed curtains, or in bed. Jerrold. A curtain lecture is worth all the sermons in the world for teaching the virtues of patience and long-suffer…

al opinions. Hence the term Cynic symbolized, in the popular judgment, moroseness, and contempt for the views of others.

uality of being cynical; the mental state, opnions, or conduct, of a cynic; morose and contemptuous views and opinions.

A female parent; -- used of beasts, especially of quadrupeds; sometimes applied in contempt to a human mother. Our sire and dam, now confined to horses, are a relic of this age (13th century) . . . .Dame is used of a hen; we now make a great difference between dame and dam. T. L. K. Oliphant. The dam runs lowing up end…

A little fellow; -- in sport or contempt. "A dandiprat hop-thumb." Stanyhurst.

A little or insignificant dandy; a contemptible fop.

To have courage for; to attempt courageously; to venture to do or to undertake. What high concentration of steady feeling makes men dare every thing and do anything Bagehot. To wrest it from barbarism, to dare its solitudes. The Century.

Dearly; at a high price. If thou attempt it, it will cost thee dear. Shak.

A beginning or first attempt; hence, a first appearance before the public, as of an actor or public speaker.

An attempt or disposition to deceive or lead into error; any declaration, artifice, or practice, which misleads another, or causes him to believe what is false; a contrivance to entrap; deception; a wily device; fraud. Making the ephah small and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit. Amos viii. 5. Fri…

A state of opposition; willingness to flight; disposition to resist; contempt of opposition. He breathed defiance to my ears. Shak.

call out to combat; to challenge; to dare; to brave; to set at defiance; to treat with contempt; as, to defy an enemy; to defy the power of a magistrate; to defy the arguments of an opponent; to defy public opinion. I once again Defy thee to the trial of mortal fight. Milton. I defy the enemies of our constitution to s…

lower the physical, moral, or intellectual character of; to debase; to bring shame or contempt upon; to disgrace; as, vice degrades a man. O miserable mankind, to what fall Degraded, to what wretched state reserved! Milton. He pride . . . struggled hard against this degrading passion. Macaulay.

The mistress of Samson, who betrayed him (Judges xvi.); hence, a harlot; a temptress. Other Delilahs on a smaller scale Burns met with during his Dumfries sojourn. J. C. Shairp.

A leader of the rabble; one who attempts to control the multitude by specious or deceitful arts; an unprincipled and factious mob orator or political leader.

Low estimation; disesteem; contempt. [Obs.]

To laugh at with contempt; to laugh to scorn; to turn to ridicule or make sport of; to mock; to scoff at. And the Pharisees, also, . . . derided him. Luke xvi. 14. Sport that wrinkled Care derides. And Laughter holding both his sides. Milton.

One who derides, or laughs at, another in contempt; a mocker; a scoffer.

The act of deriding, or the state of being derided; mockery; scornful or contemptuous treatment which holds one up to ridicule. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision. Ps. ii. 4. Saderision called. Milton.