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dismissive

UK/dɪsˈmɪsɪv/US/dəsˈmɪsɪv/
adjectiveB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,870 of 15,258leans written

Dismissive means treating something as not worth considering. A wave of the hand and a change of subject.

It takes of: dismissive of the idea, dismissive of her concerns. The word describes manner as much as opinion, since being dismissive is about refusing the argument rather than losing it. A dismissive gesture, a dismissive tone, a dismissive shrug. It sits close to disdainful but is more common and less grand. The verb dismiss means to send away, to reject an idea, and to sack somebody from a job.

Definitions of dismissive

  1. 1adjectivedismissiveTreating something as unworthy of serious attention.B2+

    “He was dismissive of every suggestion she made.”

Where it comes from

  1. Latin

    dīmittō

  2. Middle English

    dismissen//dismisen

  3. English

    dismiss

  4. English, today

    dismissive

Built from

  • dīmittō · Latin — send away, dismiss

From dismiss + -ive. dismiss comes from Middle English dismissen//dismisen, from Latin dīmittō. Middle English, from Latin dimissus (“sent away, dismissed, banished”), perfect passive participle of dīmittō (“send away, dismiss”), from dis- + mittere.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove, A Song of Ice and Fire

First appears in chapter 4 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

dismissive in the wild

  • Later, Nigel Kneale himself became dismissive of the serial, but critics gave the production relatively positive reviews.

    The Quatermass Memoirs

  • Later, Ibn Sina was largely dismissive of Natili's influence but acknowledged that his interest in medicine arose in the course of his studies with him.

    Al-Natili

  • Enthusiast reviews of the device were mixed with some excited about the hacking possibilities and the low price and others were dismissive of the device.

    Casio BE-300

  • Pevsner was dismissive of the priory, saying that Brooke Priory was the only monastery in Rutland as "Edith Weston hardly counts as one".

    Edith Weston Priory

  • Mayer about what had happened, who was nonchalant and dismissive about it.

    Harry Ruskin

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the dīmittō family

dismissdismissal

dismissive — used about once every 7,462 pages · #10,870 · point at the bar for the others