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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Contemptible \Con*tempt"i*ble\, adjective
1. Worthy of contempt; deserving of scorn or disdain; mean; vile; despicable. --Milton.
The arguments of tyranny are ascontemptible as its force is dreadful. --Burke.
2. Despised; scorned; neglected; abject. --Locke.
3. Insolent; scornful; contemptuous. [Obs.]
If she should make tender of her love, 't is very possible he 'll scorn it; for the man . . . hath a contemptible spirit. --Shak.
Syn: Despicable; abject; vile; mean; base; paltry; worthless; sorry; pitiful; scurrile. See {Contemptuous}.
Usage: {Contemptible}, {Despicable}, {Pitiful}, {Paltry}. Despicable is stronger than contemptible, as despise is stronger than contemn. It implies keen disapprobation, with a mixture of anger. A man is despicable chiefly for low actions which mark his life, such as servility, baseness, or mean adulation. A man is contemptible for mean qualities which distinguish his character, especially those which show him to be weak, foolish, or worthless. Treachery is despicable, egotism is contemptible. Pitiful and paltry are applied to cases which are beneath anger, and are simply contemptible in a high degree.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
contemptible
adjective
1: deserving of contempt or scorn [ant: {estimable}]
2: worthy only of being despised and rejected; "a contemptible lack of courage"; "A little, wretched, despicable creature, a worm, a mere nothing...that has risen up in contempt against the majesty of Heaven and earth"- Jonathan Edwards [syn: {despicable}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
136 Moby Thesaurus words for "contemptible": abhorrent, abject, abominable, arrant, atrocious, awful, bad, base, beastly, beggarly, below contempt, beneath contempt, blameworthy, brutal, cheap, cheesy, common, crude, crummy, debased, degraded, deplorable, depraved, despicable, detestable, dire, dirty, disgusting, dreadful, egregious, enormous, execrable, fetid, filthy, flagrant, forbidding, foul, fulsome, gaudy, gimcracky, grave, grievous, gross, hateful, heinous, horrible, horrid, ignoble, ignominious, infamous, inferior, lamentable, little, loathsome, lousy, low, low-down, lumpen, malodorous, mangy, mean, measly, mephitic, meretricious, miasmal, miasmic, miserable, monstrous, nasty, nauseating, nefarious, noisome, notorious, noxious, objectionable, obnoxious, obscene, odious, offensive, outcast, outrageous, paltry, pathetic, petty, pitiable, pitiful, poky, poor, rank, rebarbative, regrettable, repellent, reprehensible, reptilian, repugnant, repulsive, revolting, rotten, rubbishy, sad, scabby, scandalous, schlock, scrubby, scruffy, scummy, scurvy, scuzzy, shabby, shameful, shocking, shoddy, sickening, small, sordid, sorry, squalid, stinking, terrible, too bad, trashy, trumpery, two-for-a-cent, two-for-a-penny, twopenny, twopenny-halfpenny, unclean, unmentionable, unworthy, valueless, vile, villainous, woeful, worst, worthless, wretched
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