kənˈtem(p)təbəl adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Late Latin contemptibilis, from Latin contemptus (past participle of contemnere to despise) + -ibilis -ible — more at contemn
1. : worthy of contempt : meriting scorn and condemnation as paltry, mean, base, or vile : held in contempt
the Christianity which these emperors aimed at suppressing was … philosophically contemptible , politically subversive, and morally abominable — Matthew Arnold
2. : worthy of being scorned, rejected, or ignored especially for poverty or penury : unworthy of consideration
with that property he will never be a contemptible man — Jane Austen
3. obsolete : scornful , contemptuous
'tis very possible he'll scorn it, for the man … hath a contemptible spirit — Shakespeare
Synonyms:
despicable , pitiable , sorry , scurvy , cheap , beggarly , shabby : contemptible means deserving of contempt for any reason
a curse may, like rags and dirt, be supposed to benefit a man by making him appear vile and contemptible — J.G.Frazer
the one disgraceful, unpardonable, and to all time contemptible action of my life was to allow myself to appeal to society for help and protection — Oscar Wilde
despicable , a more scornful term, may indicate utter worthlessness or suggest bitterness and indignation
all things are sold … the smallest and most despicable — P.B.Shelley
even excellent science could and did often make despicable morality — Christian Gauss
pitiable applies to that which inspires mixed contempt and pity
the resorting to epithets … is a pitiable display of intellectual impotence — M.R.Cohen
that pitiable husk of a man … a shadow of his former insolence and splendor — E.V.Lucas
sorry is close to pitiable and suggests inadequacy, wretchedness, or sordidness
I am a sorry physician and do but aggravate a disorder which I am seeking to cure — Benjamin Jowett
one bids the poor pretender take his sorry self, a trouble and disgrace, from out the sacred presence — Robert Browning
scurvy implies the mean and vile inspiring disgust and contempt
the scurvy mutilation of a portrait by a noble lord who had sat for it and then did not like it — C.E.Montague
since some villain robbed his mates of their pork, we'll put it out of his power to play that scurvy trick again — C.B.Nordhoff & J.N.Hall
cheap and beggarly imply the petty, mean, and paltry
any cheap and facile gibes about the duplicity and dissimulation of that church — T.S.Eliot
the South in 1800 was a land of contrasts, of opulence and squalor … fine mansions, beggarly taverns — Van Wyck Brooks
cheap may also indicate meretricious availability
the wide insatiable mouth, painted as red as a wound, and the flaunting bare knees … cheap, that was the trouble — Ellen Glasgow
shabby connotes the tawdry, worn-out, or ignoble
a shabby electric sign that had said Cedar Hill before it lost its globes — Dashiell Hammett
the old story, ever shabby, ever pitiful, of a man for whom intrigue was a substitute for creativeness — Max Lerner