used to refer to someone, usually a woman, who has reacted very angrily to something, especially the fact that her husband or lover has been unfaithful See scorn in the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary.
What does it mean to scorn someone?
1 : open dislike and disrespect or mockery often mixed with indignation. 2 : an expression of contempt or derision. 3 : an object of extreme disdain, contempt, or derision : something contemptible.
Can you scorn someone?
Scorn is open disrespect for someone or something. It can also be disrespect coupled with feelings of intense dislike. The noun scorn describes your feelings of disdain when you encounter something you view as worthless or inferior — like, for instance, a talk show that gets all its facts wrong.
Is scorn the same as contempt?
1. contempt , disdain , scorn imply strong feelings of disapproval and aversion toward what seems base, mean, or worthless. … scorn denotes open or undisguised contempt often combined with derision: He showed only scorn for those who were not as ambitious as himself.
Does scornful mean disrespectful?
Showing scorn or disrespect; contemptuous. The definition of scornful is a feeling, attitude or expression of contempt or of looking down on someone. An example of something that would be described as scornful is a mocking expression or a phrase making fun of someone.
What are the signs of a scorned woman?
- The Icy Silence. Following your first outburst/accusation/fight kicker-offer, she won’t say anything. …
- The Hidden Ammo. …
- Excessive Swearing. …
- The Cold Harsh Truth. …
- Questions/No Answers. …
- Dragging Up The Past. …
- Storming Out Dramatically. …
- Turning Her Friends Against You.
What is a spurned lover?
Someone who’s spurned has been abandoned or rejected, usually by a romantic interest. If your significant other breaks up with you unexpectedly, you might feel spurned. It’s not easy to be a spurned lover, since the adjective implies total rejection by someone you love.
Which term means a feeling of unwillingness?
: feeling or showing aversion, hesitation, or unwillingness reluctant to get involved also : having or assuming a specified role unwillingly a reluctant hero. Synonyms & Antonyms Choose the Right Synonym More Example Sentences Learn More About reluctant.
What does inconsiderately mean?
1a : heedless, thoughtless. b : careless of the rights or feelings of others. 2 : not adequately considered : ill-advised. Other Words from inconsiderate Synonyms & Antonyms Example Sentences Learn More About inconsiderate.
What is scornful abuse?
Scornful is a synonym for abusive in disdainful topic. In some cases you can use “Scornful” instead an adjective “Abusive”. Nearby Words: abuse, abused, abusing, abusively.
What does very scornful mean?
: feeling or showing disgust and anger. Other Words from scornful. scornfully -fə-lē adverb.
Is scornful good or bad?
a very strong feeling of no respect for someone or something that you think is stupid or has no value;to treat with a great lack of respect, or to refuse something because you think it is wrong or not acceptable;to show scorn for someone or something;to refuse advice or an offer because you are too proud; To consider …
What makes a woman scorned?
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned is a proverb adapted from lines in The Mourning Bride, a tragic play by English playwright William Congreve first performed in 1697. … The expression is interpreted to mean that no one is as angry as a woman who has been romantically rejected or betrayed.
What has no fury?
‘Hell has no fury like a woman scorned‘ (or sometimes ‘hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’) is usually attributed to the English playwright and poet William Congreve. He wrote these lines in his play The Mourning Bride, 1697: … He shall find no Fiend in Hell can match the fury of a disappointed Woman!
What does scorned ex mean?
The scorned ex will communicate with their former lover’s buddies on social media to intentionally piss you off by liking photos, posting comments, and things like that. They know you’ll see it, and they know you’ll be livid. Typical ex behavior.
‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’ is an idiom that is adapted from a line in William Congreve’s play, The Mourning Bride (1697). The line from which it came is ‘Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.”
‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’ means that there is no greater anger than that of a woman who has been rejected in love.
People usually think that this quote comes from Shakespeare, that it is one of the hundreds of Shakespeare’s phrases that have become idioms, as it looks as though it is one of Shakespeare’s lines. That is particularly the case because it has the early modern English word ‘hath’ in it. The word ‘hath’ has crept into the idiom even though it is not in the original line.
The quote also looks as though it may have come from the Bible, for the same reasons. ‘Where does this quote come from?’ is sometimes a question in quiz programs, one in which most participants would answer ‘Shakespeare’ or ‘the Bible,’ and, of course, they would be wrong.
William Congreve was a popular and successful English playwright of Restoration theatre, whose plays are still sometimes staged. Some of his other lines are also mistaken for Shakespeare, for example, ‘Music has charms to soothe the savage breast, ‘ ‘tis better to be left than never to have been loved,’ ‘You must not kiss and tell’ and ‘married in haste, we repent at leisure.’
The Mourning Bride is a tragic play, first performed in 1697. The line is spoken by Zara who is captured and made a prisoner and becomes involved in a deadly love triangle.
The word ‘scorned’ has a specific meaning today: it would be similar to ‘mocked.’ So it seems to be about mocking a woman, but the meaning has changed. The theatregoers of the 17th century would have understood the word to mean ‘betrayed.’ That would be especially in the case of a woman who had been replaced by another woman in a man’s affections.
It is an interesting quote as it’s controversial these days. Some women disapprove of its use because they see it as a sexist stereotype that depicts women as being overemotional compared with men. Other women see it as a warning about the power of women, asserting that a man should think twice before crossing one.
Although Congreve was one of the most popular playwrights of his time his career in the theatre was short – only seven years. Cultural change was taking place and his kind of drama came to be seen as somewhat old-fashioned, so he retired from playwriting and continued as a poet, translator, and opera librettist, but it is only his body of plays that has survived into the 21st Century.
Congreve’s plays are generally about the thorny relationship that exists between men and women. It is something that fascinates writers and is one of the main themes of all literature.
William Congreve vs Oscar Wilde
Two hundred years after Congreve an Irish writer dominated the London theatre with the same theme. That was Oscar Wilde, whose turn of phrase was so similar to Congreve’s that ‘hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,’ and particularly ‘married in haste, we repent at leisure,’ are often attributed to him.
Wilde’s male characters make what we regard as sexist comments today, but would not have been considered as such in Victorian England. Some of his most famous quotes about women are – (a character talking about a middle-aged widow who has been rejuvenated by her husband’s death) ‘Her hair has turned quite gold with grief’; ‘Men always want to be a woman’s first love – women like to be a man’s last romance’; ‘the strength of women comes from the fact that psychology cannot explain them’. ‘Men can be analysed, women merely adored’; ‘The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her if she is pretty, and to someone else if she is plain’; ‘I like men who have a future and women who have a past.’
Amongst this selection of Oscar Wilde quotes it’s easy to see how the phrase ‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’ by William Congreve would fit nicely!
Portrait of William Congreve