Word of the Day

: March 28, 2024

flout

verb FLOUT

What It Means

To flout something, such as a law or rule, is to treat it with contemptuous disregard. A teenager flouting a curfew, for example, will not hide the fact that they are out past the time they are required to be home.

// The court found that the company had continued to flout the law despite multiple warnings.

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flout in Context

"Bringing a queer sensibility and a deep understanding of Modern Orthodox Jewish tradition to novel writing, [Temim] Fruchter asks whether finding comfort in mystery is a viable alternative to standard happy endings or bleak fates. 'City of Laughter' argues that flouting convention makes space for more authentic, expansive stories and more authentic, expansive lives." — Lauren LeBlanc, The New York Times, 13 Jan. 2024

Did You Know?

If you flout a rule or societal norm, you ignore it without hiding what you're doing, or showing fear or shame; you flout it "out" in the open. The similar-sounding word flaunt is sometimes used in the same way, though that word's older and more common meaning is "to display ostentatiously," as in "people who flaunt their wealth." Critics have been objecting to the confusion of these two words since the early 1900s, but use of flaunt with the meaning "to treat with contemptuous disregard" is found in even polished, edited writing, and so that meaning is included in dictionaries as an established use of the word. Nonetheless, you may want to avoid it: there are still many who judge harshly those who (they feel) are flouting proper English usage.