as in vile
not following or in accordance with standards of honor and decency
the detestable actions of a nasty little man
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Recent Examples of detestable
If ever there was a time to eat your peas, asparagus and a buffet table of other detestable vegetables, Friday was it.
—
Mac Engel, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 7 Feb. 2025
What’s more, a loss at Hell in a Cell could also force McIntyre to become an even more detestable heel in the weeks and months ahead.
—Blake Oestriecher, Forbes, 5 Oct. 2024
As if being Jewish had become something really murky, vaguely suspect, possibly detestable.
—Elsa Keslassy, Variety, 7 Aug. 2024
For a Black girl living during one of the worst periods of race relations in America, these were the detestable but sadly predictable terms of engagement.
—Tribune News Service, Hartford Courant, 17 June 2024
See All Example Sentences for detestable
Mac Engel, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 7 Feb. 2025
What’s more, a loss at Hell in a Cell could also force McIntyre to become an even more detestable heel in the weeks and months ahead.
—Blake Oestriecher, Forbes, 5 Oct. 2024
As if being Jewish had become something really murky, vaguely suspect, possibly detestable.
—Elsa Keslassy, Variety, 7 Aug. 2024
For a Black girl living during one of the worst periods of race relations in America, these were the detestable but sadly predictable terms of engagement.
—Tribune News Service, Hartford Courant, 17 June 2024
See All Example Sentences for detestable
Recent Examples of Synonyms for detestable
Adjective
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The Oakland Jewish Alliance, a grassroots organization formed in the wake of these vile acts, has reported over 400 incidents of antisemitic graffiti around the Lake Merritt/Lakeshore neighborhoods in a one-year period.—
Mark Cohen,
The Mercury News,
10 Mar. 2025
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After West went on a series of vile antisemitic rants in the fall of 2022, Donda became collateral damage, with families pulling their children out and several teachers leaving.—
Cheyenne Roundtree,
Rolling Stone,
7 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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The campaign materials were unequivocal: Worley believed LGBT influences in society were immoral.—
Nick Penzenstadler,
USA TODAY,
4 Mar. 2025
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And so Rose, immortal on the field, with a bat, was judged immoral off it by the saints who guard baseball’s gate.—
Greg Cote,
Miami Herald,
4 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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Every Look from the 2025 Oscars Red Carpet By Vogue Based on Court of Honor, William P. Wood’s 1991 legal thriller, this Turner Network Television original movie finds Tom Selleck playing a municipal judge who pitches in to help with a government sting operation focused on nailing a dirty judge.—
Nell Beram,
Vogue,
8 Mar. 2025
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More likely, a veteran like Hill or Ford or any number of others — guys who have played a lot and know how to get the dirty work done — could fit.—
Parker Gabriel,
The Denver Post,
7 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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And then, to top a nasty joke with a nastier one, he was deemed useless for the final twenty years of his life.—
Jackson Arn,
The New Yorker,
10 Mar. 2025
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Fancy record-cleaning machines like this one from Pro-Ject ($450) use a platter and a vacuum system to physically suck the nasty cleaning solution out of the grooves, with a motor that spins the record in two directions.—
Parker Hall,
WIRED,
8 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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Immigration advocates call the crackdown cruel and wrongheaded and warn that many Latino U.S. citizens will likely suffer violations of their civil rights and possibly even get mistakenly deported.—
Dave Goldiner,
New York Daily News,
6 Mar. 2025
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As mere surrogates, the Trump-DeSantis fight to outdo each other through mean and cruel policies will go on.—
Letters to the Editor,
Orlando Sentinel,
6 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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At the time, some of LeBron’s critics saw this as contemptible.—
Ross Andersen,
The Atlantic,
16 Mar. 2025
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Civil-liberties organizations have defended neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan on the basis that, unless there is free speech for the most contemptible members of society, there cannot be free speech for all.—
Jay Caspian Kang,
The New Yorker,
14 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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Some segments of the Democratic coalition would find Piker to be edgy, or crass, or even despicable.—
Andrew Marantz,
The New Yorker,
17 Mar. 2025
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In an America where the masks of the rich and powerful have long been dropped, Posey pulls off a mysterious emotional striptease, revealing the many layers of Victoria — lazy, childlike, despicable, poignant, inimitable.—
Julia Whelan Emma Kehlbeck Joel Thibodeau,
New York Times,
24 Feb. 2025
Adjective
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Contrary to what many people believe, pit bulls don't naturally have a bad temperament, are not inherently vicious, and are not more dangerous than other dogs.—
Faisal Kutty,
Newsweek,
12 Mar. 2025
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Ferran’s Blanche puts up a vicious fight, but Mescal’s Stanley relishes the roughhousing.—
Charles McNulty,
Los Angeles Times,
12 Mar. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Detestable.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/detestable. Accessed 21 Mar. 2025.
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