a. Obs. [f. CONTEMPT sb. + -FUL.]

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  1.  Full of contempt, contemptuous.

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1604.  Drayton, Owle, 683. Who in this time contemptfull Greatnesse late Scornd and disgrac’d.

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a. 1641.  Bp. Montagu, Acts & Mon. (1642), 285. One onely … charged him with some contemptfull words uttered against Herod.

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1683.  D. A., Art Converse, 28. Not so much to overawe them by a contemptful expression, as by a convincing reason.

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  2.  Worthy of contempt; contemptible. (Cf. disgraceful.)

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1613.  G. Chapman, Rev. Bussy D’Amb., I. Dram. Wks. (1873), II. 113. The Stage and Actors are not so contemptfull, As euery innouating Puritane … Would haue the world imagine.

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1627–77.  Feltham, Resolves, I. xx. (1677), 36. Nauseous and contemptful.

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