derisive

From the participle stem of Latin dērīdeō (“I deride”).

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /dɪˈɹaɪ.sɪv/, /dɪˈɹɪ.sɪv/

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derisive (comparative more derisive, superlative most derisive)

1. Expressing or characterized by derision; mocking; ridiculing.

   The critic's review of the film was derisive.

2. Deserving or provoking derision or ridicule.

   The plot of the film was so derisive that the audience began to jeer.

• (expressing or characterized by derision): mocking, ridiculing, scornful, disdainful
• (deserving or provoking derision): ridiculous

• derisively
• derisiveness
• underisive

derisive (plural derisives)

1. (rare) A derisive remark.
   • 1894, Samuel Rutherford Crockett, The Stickit Minister: And Some Common Men, page 173:

     The three lambs stood at bay, huddled close together, and helplessly bleated feeble derisives at the wolf who has headed them off from safety; but their polite and Englishy tone was a source of Homeric laughter to this Thersites of the Pleasance.

   • 1962, Homer Floyd Fansler, History of Tucker County, West Virginia, page 192:

     He leaped over the embankment at the river's edge in such a manner that it appeared he had been fatally hit and was down for good; the Yankees shouting such derisives as "Another damn Rebel for hell," "Goodbye, you Rebel bastard," etc., didn't go right away to rob the corpse.

   • 2017, Bogdadn Lesnik, Countering Discrimination in Social Work:

     Indeed, the power inherent in the labels attributed to them has repeatedly transformed these terms from allegedly scientific ones into colloquial derisives.

• derisive in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

• desirive