Meaning & use
deride
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Meaning
verbtransitiveformaldisapproving
To treat someone or something as foolish or worthless by laughing at them with scorn.
Grammar: Takes an object: deride a plan, deride someone as lazy.
Patterns
- deride someone
- deride something as something
- deride someone for something
Critics derided the film as dull and old-fashioned.
The other children derided him for wearing the old coat.
Some people deride modern art without trying to understand it.
Word forms
| third person singular | derides |
|---|---|
| past tense | derided |
| past participle | derided |
| -ing form | deriding |
Common combinations
- openly deride
- The columnist openly derided the minister's plan.
- deride as
- They derided the idea as hopeless.
- deride someone's efforts
- Do not deride his efforts, because he is trying.
- publicly deride
- Fans publicly derided the referee's decision.
- derided by critics
- The novel was derided by critics but loved by readers.
Synonyms and how they differ
- mock
- Mock can be playful or cruel, while deride always shows scorn and a sense of looking down on someone.
- ridicule
- Ridicule is very close in meaning but is more commonly used for making fun of a person in front of others.
- scoff at
- Scoff at is more informal and suggests dismissing an idea with a snort, where deride is more serious.
- belittle
- Belittle means making something seem unimportant, but it need not involve mockery.
Opposites
Word family
- derision noun
- contemptuous laughter or ridicule
- derisive adjective
- expressing contempt or mockery
- derisory adjective
- so small that it seems like a joke
- derisively adverb
- in a mocking way
Commonly confused: deride or decide? deride or deride?
deride vs decide
Decide looks and sounds a little similar but means to make a choice, with no idea of mockery.
deride vs deride
Deride is sometimes mixed up with derive, which means to obtain from a source.
Practice
The columnist continued to ___ the plan as foolish, even after it succeeded.
Choose one answer.
Deride means to mock with scorn, which fits calling a plan foolish. Derive and decide look similar but have different meanings.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “deride”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.