What's the difference between disdain and spurn?

Disdain


Definition:

  • (v. t.) A feeling of contempt and aversion; the regarding anything as unworthy of or beneath one; scorn.
  • (v. t.) That which is worthy to be disdained or regarded with contempt and aversion.
  • (v. t.) The state of being despised; shame.
  • (v. t.) To think unworthy; to deem unsuitable or unbecoming; as, to disdain to do a mean act.
  • (v. t.) To reject as unworthy of one's self, or as not deserving one's notice; to look with scorn upon; to scorn, as base acts, character, etc.
  • (v. i.) To be filled with scorn; to feel contemptuous anger; to be haughty.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) People praying, voicing their views and heart, were met with disdain and a level of force exceeding what was needed.
  • (2) Fred had to be substituted to shield him from the crowd’s disdain.
  • (3) It may have been like punk never ‘appened, but you caught a whiff of the movement’s scorched earth puritanism in the mocking disdain with which Smash Hits addressed rock-star hedonism.
  • (4) TV's Jeremy Paxman didn't even bother hiding his disdain for the introduction of weather reports to Newsnight – "It's April.
  • (5) It shows that we still have some way to go to end bigoted banter.” The exchange was also met with disdain on Twitter.
  • (6) He has frequently tested the patience of Japan's conservative sumo authorities with his disdain for the rules of engagement in the ring and his bad behaviour off it.
  • (7) His comic adventures are too many to relate, but it may be said that they culminate in a café of 'singing waiters' where, after a wealth of comic 'business' with the tray, he shows his disdain for articulate speech by singing a vividly explicit song in gibberish.
  • (8) Immigration has been used as a 21st-century incomes policy, mixing a liberal sense of free for all with a free-market disdain for clear and effective rules.
  • (9) Riva, the oldest nominee ever for best actress category, has a very Gallic disdain for such public adulation.
  • (10) "Historians will pore over his many speeches to black audiences," wrote Ta-Nahisi Coates at The Atlantic, and "they will see a president who sought to hold black people accountable for their communities, but was disdainful of those who looked at him and sought the same".
  • (11) Born in July 1954, Christopher Murray Paul-Huhne (his surname until he went to Oxford) has always been something of a Marmite politician, attracting both loyalty and affection, as well as brickbats and disdain.
  • (12) Gil Eliyahu, who stopped working for Binyamin and Sara Netanyahu two and a half years ago, is threatening to sue the couple, claiming he was treated with "humiliating" disdain.
  • (13) It was one of at least half a dozen such unionist experiments, with a variety of partners, which foundered on the rocks of the would-be partners' infirmity of purpose, fear, suspicion and disdain of this bizarre, arrogant, impetuous upstart.
  • (14) Safronkov reserved his fiercest disdain for the UK envoy, Matthew Rycroft, who had said that UK scientists had determined that sarin had been used in the Khan Sheikhun attack and called on Russia to cut ties with Assad, who Rycroft said was bringing Moscow only “shame and humiliation”.
  • (15) The rules extended from healthcare to the environment to workplace safety, but all were grounded in Bush's disdain for the government's role as a regulatory authority.
  • (16) Stevenson did not disdain the genre in which he was operating.
  • (17) Issues Sir Ken, on the other hand, is a professional Yorkshireman and farmer - the sort of chap who prefers to call a retail outlet a shop and treated press and City with equal disdain.
  • (18) The pent-up fury of the parents reflected the intensity of the violent protests that marked a dramatic week in Mexico, which has deepened the political crisis facing President Enrique Peña Nieto as he returns from a week-long trip to China and Australia, seen by many as a sign of disdain for the suffering and anger at home.
  • (19) What is clear now, for those for whom it was ever in doubt, is the reality of Tory values: the disdain with which they view the less fortunate and the reason why the annual cull of the impoverished through malnutrition and hypothermia is not a problem to them.
  • (20) Instead – spoiler alert – to the disdain of many, it opted for a more satisfying, upbeat conclusion.

Spurn


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To drive back or away, as with the foot; to kick.
  • (v. t.) To reject with disdain; to scorn to receive or accept; to treat with contempt.
  • (v. i.) To kick or toss up the heels.
  • (v. i.) To manifest disdain in rejecting anything; to make contemptuous opposition or resistance.
  • (n.) A kick; a blow with the foot.
  • (n.) Disdainful rejection; contemptuous tratment.
  • (n.) A body of coal left to sustain an overhanding mass.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But if they spurn it, Scotland can continue using sterling anyway.
  • (2) We cannot as a centre-right party be drawn into the hubris and hysteria of populism that demands total withdrawal from Europe while ignoring the obvious dangers of such action and spurning the opportunity for reform that lies ahead of us.
  • (3) Karzai infuriated both Musharraf and Ashfaq Kayani, his successor as army chief, by spurning offers to help train Afghanistan’s embryonic army.
  • (4) The three big UK parties, in the form of George Osborne, Ed Balls and Danny Alexander, have united in saying that a spurned rest-of-the-UK will agree no currency union with an independent Scotland.
  • (5) While they spurned several opportunities here, allowing tension to creep in before Tadic scored the second 17 minutes from time, their three centre-halves did not allow the Watford strikeforce of Odion Ighalo and Troy Deeney a sniff.
  • (6) Today's announcement could be seen as a victory for the ITV management and board's strategic vision over that of the spurned Tony Ball, the former BSkyB boss who was being lined up as the company's new chief executive until negotiations broke down acrimoniously last month.
  • (7) Skifcha spurned a wave of parody videos and fan art but it’s all been rather quiet over the past few years.
  • (8) Somehow, Richard Prince's art spurns my critical advances.
  • (9) Facebook is down almost 4%, LinkedIn lost 3%, and Twitter (which spurned the Nasdaq for the NYSE index) dropped around 4%.
  • (10) The desire to determine the extent inter-rater measurements obtained in a clinical setting are free from measurement error and reflect true scores has spurned a renewed interest in assessment of reliability.
  • (11) Their latest show of wastefulness came as they ended a positive season with a 2-1 defeat to Stoke City and Diafra Sakho was particularly culpable, spurning a glorious chance to make it 2-0 early in the second half.
  • (12) In what appeared to be a planned spree – Rodger uploaded YouTube videos in which he denounced women for spurning him and vowed to take “great pleasure in slaughtering all of you” – he allegedly started by stabbing three men repeatedly in an apartment some time before 9.30pm on Friday.
  • (13) In December it offered almost two Santander shares for each A&L share to secure a deal but was spurned by the UK lender's board.
  • (14) But after spurning a number of chances it looked as though it would not be their night when United, largely against the run of play, took the lead when David Norris picked out Smith with a pin-point cross to head home from close range.
  • (15) Thwarted in his attempts to travel abroad, spurned by his fiancee once police had contacted her, he suffered serial rejection.
  • (16) History will almost certainly judge Osborne as the chancellor who spurned the chance to gain massive public support by tackling tax avoidance properly; consequently, he well may be seen as the man who cost his party the 2015 election.
  • (17) Diplomats say that at dinners he spurns lists of talking points and is willing to engage with his counterparts.
  • (18) 'Yorkshire WIldlife Trust, owners of Spurn Point, asked for help clean up after the December tidal surge.
  • (19) Norman, too, knows what it is like to pass up fine major-winning opportunities; events at Lytham may have proved familiar, though even he never spurned a chance so late in proceedings.
  • (20) At the last general election, less than 12% of voters spurned Tory, Labour or Lib Dem candidates.