deride
dih-RIDEverbMeaning to mock and make fun of with scorn
Memory hook DE-RIDE: “You call that a RIDE?”. The older kids point and laugh at Pip’s homemade cart: “Ha! You call that a ride?” To deride is to mock with scorn.
Some kids derided her homemade costume, but it won first prize.
In context Experts once derided the idea of a phone without buttons as a silly toy; within a few years, nearly everyone carried one.
Similar mock, ridicule, scorn, jeer at
Opposite praise, admire, respect
From Latin deridere, “to laugh at, mock”: de (down) + ridere (to laugh), the root of ridiculous.