familiarity breeds contempt
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.10 in modern English
42
Scrabble Score
25
Letters
8
Syllables
16
Unique Chars
Meaning
proverb
A prolonged closeness or exposure or a profound knowledge of someone or something often leads to diminished respect or appreciation.
Example Sentences
- "“[S]uffer [your children] not to carry themselves unreverently or contemptuously towards you [parents]; but to keep their distance. For too much familiarity breedeth contempt, and imboldeneth to disobedience.”"
- "“For a person to read his own works over with any great delight, he ought first to forget that he ever wrote them. Familiarity naturally breeds contempt.”"
- "[F]or Ayesha was certainly an exception to the rule. Familiarity with her might and did breed passion and wonder and horror, but it certainly did not breed contempt."
- "This was the beginning of evil, for if no man is a hero to his valet de chambre, much less can he remain a god for long in the eyes of a curious woman. Here, as in other matters, familiarity breeds contempt."