CONDESCENDING • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Condescending

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/kˌɑndɪsˈɛndɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Condescend v. i. (past & past part. condescended; pres. part. condescending)

To stoop or descend; to let one's self down; to submit; to waive the privilege of rank or dignity; to accommodate one's self to an inferior. "Condescend to men of low estate." "Can they think me so broken, so debased With corporal servitude, that my mind ever Will condescend to such absurd commands?" "Spain's mighty monarch, In gracious clemency, does condescend, On these conditions, to become your friend." Note: Often used ironically, implying an assumption of superiority. "Those who thought they were honoring me by condescending to address a few words to me."

To consent. (Obs.) "All parties willingly condescended heruento."

Synonyms: To yield; stoop; descend; deign; vouchsafe.

adjective

condescending adj. Exhibiting an attitude of superiority; patronizing; used of behavior or attitude.

Synonyms: arch, patronizing.

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Etymology of 'Condescending'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Condescending" Quotes from Famous Books

... might have been easily inferred from the manner in which he now set his broad shoulders expansively back in the armchair in which he was posing, and regarded the artist with a patronizing air of condescending to be wonderfully entertained by ...

— The Philistines • Arlo Bates

... all our own, father. It was but yesterday I said to one of those insolent Americans who was condescending to admire it: 'Very good, Senor; and, if you deign to believe me, it was not brought from New York. Such as you see it, it was made by ourselves here at San Antonio.' Saints in heaven! the fellow laughed in my face. We were mutually convinced of ...

— Remember the Alamo • Amelia E. Barr

... did you?" said the inventor, with a condescending smile. "Yes, Griggs, I may confess to some slight satisfaction in that payment. It is a matter of one thousand dollars—from the coal ...

— Mr. Hawkins' Humorous Adventures • Edgar Franklin

... food— The laws of generations past, The fruits of science, evil, good, The prejudices all men have, The fatal secrets of the grave, And life and fate in turn selected Were to analysis subjected. The fervid poet would recite, Carried away by ecstasy, Fragments of northern poetry, Whilst Eugene condescending quite, Though scarcely following what was said, Attentive listened ...

— Eugene Oneguine [Onegin] - A Romance of Russian Life in Verse • Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin

... he might at least behave decently! Why, he shouts, he bellows, gives himself airs, poses as a sort of Bonaparte, does not let one say a word. . . . I don't know what the devil's the matter with him! These lordly gestures, this condescending tone; and laughing like a general! Who is he, allow me to ask you? I ask you, who is he? The husband of his wife, with a few paltry acres and the rank of a titular who has had the luck to marry an heiress! An upstart and a junker, like so many others! A type out ...

— The Party and Other Stories • Anton Chekhov

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