Chapter Contemplatively to Contents of C by Webster's Dictionary (1913 Edition)

4. (Law) Disobedience of the rules, orders, or process of a court of justice, or of rules or orders of a legislative body; disorderly, contemptuous, or insolent language or behavior in presence of a court, tending to disturb its proceedings, or impair the respect due to its authority.

Contempt is in some jurisdictions extended so as to include publications reflecting injuriously on a court of justice, or commenting unfairly on pending proceedings; in other jurisdictions the courts are prohibited by statute or by the constitution from thus exercising this process.

Syn. — Disdain; scorn; derision; mockery; contumely; neglect; disregard; slight.

Contemptibility
(Con*tempt`i*bil"i*ty) n. The quality of being contemptible; contemptibleness. Speed.

Contemptible
(Con*tempt"i*ble) a.

1. Worthy of contempt; deserving of scorn or disdain; mean; vile; despicable. Milton.

The arguments of tyranny are ascontemptible as its force is dreadful.
Burke.

2. Despised; scorned; neglected; abject. Locke.

3. Insolent; scornful; contemptuous. [Obs.]

If she should make tender of her love, 't is very possible he 'll scorn it; for the man . . . hath a contemptible spirit.
Shak.

Syn. — Despicable; abject; vile; mean; base; paltry; worthless; sorry; pitiful; scurrile. See Contemptuous. — Contemptible, Despicable, Pitiful, Paltry. Despicable is stronger than contemptible, as despise is stronger than contemn. It implies keen disapprobation, with a mixture of anger. A man is despicable chiefly for low actions which mark his life, such as servility, baseness, or mean adulation. A man is contemptible for mean qualities which distinguish his character, especially those which show him to be weak, foolish, or worthless. Treachery is despicable, egotism is contemptible. Pitiful and paltry are applied to cases which are beneath anger, and are simply contemptible in a high degree.

Contemptibleness
(Con*tempt"i*ble*ness), n. The state or quality of being contemptible, or of being despised.

Contemptibly
(Con*tempt"i*bly), adv. In a contemptible manner.

Contemptuous
(Con*temp"tu*ous) a. Manifesting or expressing contempt or disdain; scornful; haughty; insolent; disdainful.

A proud, contemptuous behavior.
Hammond.

Savage invective and contemptuous sarcasm.
Macaulay.

Rome . . . entertained the most contemptuous opinion of the Jews.
Atterbury.

Syn. — Scornful; insolent; haughty; disdainful; supercilious; insulting; contumelious. — Contemptuous, Contemptible. These words, from their similarity of sound, are sometimes erroneously interchanged, as when a person speaks of having "a very contemptible opinion of another." Contemptible is applied to that which is the object of contempt; as, contemptible conduct; acontemptible fellow. Contemptuous is applied to that which indicates contempt; as, a contemptuous look; a contemptuous remark; contemptuous treatment. A person, or whatever is personal, as an action, an expression, a feeling, an opinion, may be either contemptuous or contemptible; a thing may be contemptible, but can not be contemptuous.