slighting

Pluralslightings

1. 1
   adjective

   Showing a lack of respect; meant to belittle or put someone down.

   The review was full of slighting remarks about the author's style.

   He spoke in a slighting way about every rival in the field.

   Similardisparaging, belittling, derogatory, disrespectful, dismissive

   Oppositecomplimentary, flattering, respectful, admiring

   Note

   A gradable adjective: a remark can be more slighting or most slighting than another, never "slightinger." It usually describes speech and manner, such as slighting remarks, a slighting tone, or speaking in a slighting way. It rarely describes a person directly, which keeps it close to the verb it comes from.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of slight.

   By slighting the host so openly, he ruined the whole evening.

   The critic was slighting every new artist who came through town.

   Note

   Every sense of the verb slight passes through this -ing form, from making light of a person to knocking down defenses so they can no longer be held. It normally takes a direct object. After be it forms the progressive (was slighting every new artist). As a gerund it heads a noun phrase (his habit of slighting the company chairman). The same spelling also serves as the belittling adjective.

3. 3
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act of insulting or snubbing someone, often in a small or subtle way.

   Leaving her name off the program felt like a calculated slighting.

   He never forgave the slighting he had endured from his former mentor.

   Similarsnub, insult, affront, rebuff

   Oppositecompliment

   Note

   An insult counted one at a time. A single snub is a slighting, and a run of them are slightings. Lucy Hutchinson's Memoirs of the life of Colonel Hutchinson (1848) shows former scorners crowding round the colonel to "redeem their late slightings." The insult here is something done, which sets it apart from the neglect sense, where the injury lies in what is left undone.

4. 4
   noundialectaluncountable

   A failure to pay attention to or take care of someone or something; in a wider sense, neglect.

   The slighting of routine repairs eventually closed the bridge.

   She felt the slighting of her contribution was both unfair and deliberate.

   Similarneglect, disregard

   Oppositeattention, care

   Note

   Neglect rather than insult, and a regional usage. Outside the areas where it is current it may be heard as the snub instead. In general writing, neglect is the safer word. Where it is used, it usually takes of plus the thing left unattended, as in the slighting of children or the slighting of repairs. It can name a single lapse or a lasting habit of inattention.

5. 5
   noundialectaluncountable

   The act of turning down or refusing someone or something; rejection.

   The slighting of every local proposal left residents frustrated.

   Her repeated slighting of their invitations strained the friendship.

   Similarrejection, dismissal, refusal, spurning

   Oppositeacceptance, approval

   Note

   Here the slight is a refusal: an offer, a hand or a proposal turned away. It shares the regional standing of the neglect sense. Its typical frame names both sides of the refusal, with of before what is rejected and by before who rejects it: the slighting of a handshake by Samuel. The phrase points at the moment of turning something down rather than at a long period of neglect.

6. 6
   noununcountable

   The pulling down of a fortification, either completely or in part.

   Parliament authorized the slighting of several royalist strongholds.

   The slighting of the keep ensured that no garrison could hold it again.

   Similardemolition, dismantling, destruction

   Oppositefortification

   Note

   Military engineering has a precise use for the word: damaging a fortification just enough that it can no longer be defended. The destruction can be partial. A breached wall or a gutted keep counts, and the ruin may still stand. Such work was typically ordered after a siege, so that no garrison could reoccupy the place. The matching verb is slight: the castle was slighted.

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