as in slighting
intended to make a person or thing seem of little importance or value
used the detractive epithet "McJob" to describe what his feckless son-in-law did for work
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for detractive
Adjective
-
Sean Griffin, local executive council president for the union, said the pay is insulting.—
Chase Jordan,
Charlotte Observer,
26 Mar. 2025 -
To suggest civil servants don’t work hard and could do more for less is insulting to the hundreds of thousands of hard-working federal workers earning their paychecks today.—
Chicago Tribune,
Chicago Tribune,
14 Mar. 2025
Adjective
-
According to an ancient Greek myth, all those who had fallen in love with the young man Narcissus were met with contemptuous rejection.—
Abigayle Ward,
Hartford Courant,
8 Mar. 2025
-
The president was also profoundly contemptuous of women, kept his true opposition to female suffrage carefully hidden, and allowed the suffragists who silently held banners outside the White House to be repeatedly attacked by mobs, beaten, and jailed.—
Foreign Affairs,
Foreign Affairs,
25 Feb. 2025
Adjective
-
This capability is particularly useful for studying critical environments like eelgrass beds, which support marine biodiversity.—
Kurt Knutsson, CyberGuy Report,
FOXNews.com,
10 Apr. 2025
-
With key players sidelined, Sacramento will now have to lean heavily on its depth during a critical stretch of the season, but at the worst possible time.—
Raja Krishnamoorthi,
MSNBC Newsweek,
10 Apr. 2025
Adjective
-
There is evidence of motivated malicious actors abusing the 'verified account' to deceive users.—
Jon Brodkin,
ArsTechnica,
4 Apr. 2025
-
Jose Velasquez-Martinez, 27, is charged with malicious wounding and murder in connection with 29-year-old Brandon Probst's death in Warrenton, according to the Fauquier County Sheriff's Office.—
Audrey Conklin,
FOXNews.com,
4 Apr. 2025
Adjective
-
The 2023 Economic Report Of The President published in March of 2023 was relatively disparaging of cryptoassets and DLTs.—
Lawrence Wintermeyer,
Forbes,
5 Dec. 2024
-
Prior to appearing on Cunningham's show on Monday, Huggins made more disparaging remarks about Xavier.—
Emily DeLetter,
The Enquirer,
10 May 2023
Adjective
-
Both documents suggest that Marocco was disdainful of aid spent on health care, economic development and programs to promote democracy and human rights.—
Fatma Tanis,
NPR,
25 Mar. 2025
-
From above, the figurines almost appear to be grinning, but the face looks disdainful when viewed head-on.—
Mack DeGeurin,
Popular Science,
6 Mar. 2025
Adjective
-
Incentives for employees to resign or retire could lead to a loss of experienced staff, further degrading service quality.—
Thomas G. Moukawsher,
Newsweek,
4 Mar. 2025
-
Drill sergeants now minimize their use of profanity, insults and degrading remarks and strive to become support figures for trainees.—
Cybele Mayes-Osterman,
USA TODAY,
25 Jan. 2025
Adjective
-
This is not a pejorative question; as Harris’s wife says herself, and as the whole world saw in 2018, sometimes a deep-diving anesthetist can come in handy.—
Damon Wise,
Deadline,
31 Mar. 2025
-
While Bascombe is there, Adam alerts his dad to the pejorative meaning behind some emojis that Katie was sending to Jamie on Instagram, prompting the detective to start looking into whether Jamie might have been cyber-bullied.—
Olivia B. Waxman,
TIME,
13 Mar. 2025
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Cite this Entry
“Detractive.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/detractive. Accessed 16 Apr. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share