Deride

//dɪˈɹaɪd// verb

verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To laugh at or mock (someone or something) harshly; to ridicule, to scorn. transitive

    "Cicero beeing Augur, derideth the Auguries, and blames men for letting their actions relie vpon the voyce of a Crovve or a Davve."

  2. 2
    treat or speak of with contempt wordnet
  3. 3
    To laugh in a harshly mocking manner. intransitive, obsolete

    "Memorandum that about the year 1650 coffee and chocolate began to be frequently drunk in Oxon: and about 1655 a club was erected at Tilliard's where many pretended witts would meet and deride at others."

Synonyms

All synonyms
mockaspersebadgerbambanterbarrack

Example

More examples

"The truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it, ignorance may deride it, malice may distort it, but there it is."

Etymology

PIE word *de Learned borrowing from Latin dērīdēre, the present active infinitive of dērīdeō (“to laugh at, make fun of, mock, deride”), from dē- (prefix denoting putting down or subjecting to indignity) + rīdeō (“to laugh; to laugh at, mock, ridicule”) (further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *wert- (“to rotate; to turn”) (referring to turning the mouth to smile) or *wreyd- (“to carve; to scratch”)). cognates * Old French dérider (rare), derire

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.