Definition
Dismissive means showing a lack of interest or concern and considering something as unimportant.
Pronunciation
US English
UK English
See Synonyms, Antonyms and Usage
Excerpts from News Articles
1
As Trump intensified his dismissive comments about Curiel and sowed other doubts about his regard for the rule of law, the justices declined to comment on his candidacy, with one exception: Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
2
From sodden mud to jarring rocks and swollen rivers, Lucas’s quest is fraught with peril, and the constant threat of failure if not death. Yet as Lucas declares: “So much of the divine piles up in me that I cannot die…” Instead he soldiers on, led by taciturn guide Ragnar, played with dismissive stoicism by Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson. While Lucas’s head may be in the clouds, Ragnar is made of earthier stuff and harbours little affection for his clerical companion. It’s clear from the outset that they will come to blows, both mental and physical.
3
Politics lurk at the edges of the frame, from a dismissive assessment of the government (“She votes for Macron, then takes down his picture!”) to fumbled pleas for assisted dying and a passing reference to schoolkids learning terrorist attack drills. Yet far more powerful is the dramatic catharsis that One Fine Morning offers the viewer in its uncommonly tender intermingling of grief, guilt and ecstasy.
4
Police were initially dismissive of the incidents and blamed the victims. “NYPD presented to me that John went to a club, got robbed, and was so depressed that he came home and did drugs,” says Clary, who immediately doubted the story. “If that had happened to John, that would not have been his response on any level.”
5
In the deposition, Trump was dismissive of Carroll’s claims, saying: “Physically she’s not my type.”
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CF:I wanted Faro to be at once an embodiment of the myth of the old frontier West and a dismissive critic of it. He laughs at townspeople who gossip that he was the young soldier who killed Crazy Horse or helped Billy the Kid fake his death and escape to Mexico, and yet he’s very knowledgeable about the Lincoln County War in New Mexico where Billy Bonney made a name for himself.
7
For example, take Compact, where Nick Land recently wrote a defense of the canon (comparing it to Biblical scripture), but which also publishes almost weekly dismissive articles about “The Gender Ideology.” The National Review runs a Great Books podcast.
8
Meanwhile, Fox hosts and executives were privately dismissive and even contemptuous of the Trump mouthpieces, including attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, who were making false claims about Dominion. “Sidney Powell is lying by the way. I caught her. It’s insane,” Carlson wrote to Ingraham on Nov. 18, 2020. Ingraham replied: “Sidney is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy.”
9
The far-left students have a dismissive shorthand for fellow students whose politics they consider not sufficiently progressive: “future prosecutors.” The message is loud and clear — prosecutors are the bad guys. But also: Be careful what you say.
10
Or quietly play bingo with siblings’ dismissive comments: “Oh just wait,” “That’s nothing,” free space, [eye-roll], “You’ll learn,” YAY!
11
Months later, the presiding judge wrote in a ruling that she did not believe it was possible for the plaintiff, New Hampshire resident Kyle Guay, to have pulled the trigger on his gun. She found SIG Sauer’s experts, Watkins and Toner, who designed the P320, “unpersuasive” and “ dismissive .”
12
There haven’t been a lot of French #MeToo stories. As a culture, France — and even a lot of women there — have been dismissive of the movement.
13
Yet those who endured menstrual side effects described how family members had laughed off their experiences, and how some medical personnel had been dismissive and rude. One respondent reported bleeding so profusely that she expelled her IUD into the toilet; her doctor didn’t believe her and ordered an ultrasound, which confirmed what this participant had seen: The IUD was no longer in her uterus.
14
Nice. The word, deployed in this way, captures the ethos of sites like these: casually dismissive of what any normie would consider a big deal of a file drop. Maybe the vast understatement is what’s supposed to be amusing. Or maybe the user thinks that the documents themselves could be a gag. This is how many people who live much of their lives on the internet behave. Irony suffuses each and every interaction, to the point that it’s nearly impossible to tell when something, or someone, is sincere.
15
She is beyond grateful that people, especially complete strangers, have gone out of their way to show compassion to her family. Small agreed, saying that it can be easy to be dismissive and critical of others, but sometimes people can find themselves in situations they never imagined.
16
DeSantis last month walked back his characterization of the war as a “territorial dispute” following criticism from a number of fellow Republicans who expressed concern about the potential 2024 presidential candidate’s dismissive description of the conflict.
17
Some celebrities have even started responding directly to claims made against them. Take Girls5Eva and Dawson’s Creek star Busy Philipps, who, in November last year, hit back at an allegation on DeuxMoi that she was “rude and dismissive ” behind the scenes of her namesake talk show, Busy Tonight. “Someone sent me this and it’s probably very true to many of the executives who were at the network then,” she wrote on her Instagram Story, before providing further context to the claim, noting how she had an ongoing issue with her team and has acknowledged this in depth on her own podcast and taken responsibility where appropriate.
18
Other parents have learned to ignore or deny their feelings and develop a tendency to dismiss emotions. These parents tend to avoid uncomfortable feelings like sadness and anger. Emotionally dismissive parents will likely try to make uncomfortable feelings in children go away quickly or brush them off by saying things like “you’ll get over it.”
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One Black respondent discussed having a conversation with a white colleague about the racial protests and reported that the colleague was nonchalant and dismissive .
20
DeSantis last month walked back his characterization of the war as a “territorial dispute” following criticism from a number of fellow Republicans who expressed concern about the potential 2024 presidential candidate’s dismissive description of the conflict.
21
Was I too dismissive ? Probably a bit. There is a retention problem.
22
He was dismissive of the language law and the activists who sought to promote it.
23
’ If a Labour government is elected next year it will change the dynamics of Scottish and UK politics. Equally, it will require a new outlook from SNP figures who cannot continue to be openly contemptuous and dismissive of the Labour party.
24
Nor can I remember a time when markets have been so dismissive of the Fed's forward guidance. The divergence between the Fed's stated 2023 interest-rate trajectory and market expectations has been as wide as a full percentage point recently. That is a remarkably large gap for the central bank at the center of the global financial system. Markets continue to go against everything they have heard and read from the Fed by pricing in a rate cut as early as June.
25
According to the UN, there are now 1.428 billion people in India, as opposed to a mere 1.426 billion in China. When asked about this, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson sounded dismissive : “I want to tell you that population dividend does not depend on quantity but also quality”.
26
She needs to be expelled. He was dismissive of Abbott’s statement claiming that an early draft of the letter had been sent by mistake, telling viewers: It seems to me as if you don’t just say things like that by mistake. You say them because you think them, and then you seek to tone them down when you realise how offensive they are, belatedly, because of the outrage that you face.
27
“DeSanctus is being absolutely destroyed by Disney,” Mr. Trump wrote on Tuesday on Truth Social, his media site, using a dismissive nickname for the governor. Former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey also took a shot, suggesting Mr. DeSantis’s talk of punishing a business defied principles about small government.
28
Returning to the potential hearing in the Senate, there’s no reason to expect that Thomas will welcome the chance to appear before the Judiciary Committee. The last time he did so, during his confirmation hearings with Anita Hill’s accusations of sexual harassment hanging over him, he was dismissive and aggressive toward any question he deemed hostile. That’s if he even chose to show up — and I highly doubt he would.
29
JS: I used sex in a very unhealthy way. I think really the worst thing that happened out of it was that some people got their feelings hurt. I mean, I got abused a little bit in one instance and had some long-lasting physical effects from that. But more or less—and again, though the people depicted in this book may feel differently—I was just mean, dismissive , and unkind.
30
When he does respond to philosophers who set their sights on higher mysteries, Wittgenstein can be stubbornly dismissive . Consider: ‘The man who said one cannot step into the same river twice was wrong; one can step into the same river twice.’ With such blunt statements, Wittgenstein seems less a religious thinker and more a stodgy literalist.
31
People do need time to absorb profound disruptions. I am not anti-feelings or dismissive of shock. I am simply pro-understanding that events will rush onward and dealing with feelings privately vs. vainly trying, ragefully failing, to slow the onrush of events.
32
Second, conservative opponents of ESG are dismissive of ESG investing’s promotion of what they consider to be liberal causes.
33
The Fox News case has generated the most attention. That’s because the litigation moved faster than others and also because it unearthed a trove of internal documents that showed Fox’s executives and prominent personalities were privately dismissive of Trump’s election claims but aired them anyway. Star hosts such as Tucker Carlson also expressed disdain for Trump in texts with colleagues.
34
Craft’s campaign was dismissive of the broadside from the super PAC. “The only thing more palpable than the momentum behind Kelly Craft is the Cameron team’s desperation,” Kristin Davison, a senior adviser for Craft, said in a statement.
35
Alex Vitale, a Brooklyn College professor and author of The End of Policing tweeted back, “This is beyond ridiculous.” It seemed to others as dismissive of complaints about over-policing, particularly in Black communities. Stoller doesn’t see it.