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Condescending   /kˌɑndɪsˈɛndɪŋ/   Listen
verb
Condescend  v. i.  (past & past part. condescended; pres. part. condescending)  
1.
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."
2.
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.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Condescending" Quotes from Famous Books



... that He was sent specially to the seed of Abraham, He was ready to extend His sympathy to their bitterest enemies. Though He took upon Him the form of a servant, there was nothing mean or servile in His behaviour; for, when He humbled Himself, there was ever about Him an air of condescending majesty. Whether He administers comfort to the mourner, or walks upon the waves of the sea, or replies to the cavils of the Pharisees, He is still the same calm, holy, and gracious Saviour. When His passion was immediately in view, He was as kind and as considerate as ever, for, on the ...
— The Ancient Church - Its History, Doctrine, Worship, and Constitution • W.D. [William Dool] Killen

... to-night, Mr. Polwarth?" said the pastor. He had not yet got rid of the tone in which in his young days he had been accustomed to address the poor of his flock—a tone half familiar, half condescending. To big ships barnacles will stick—and may add weeks to the length of ...
— Paul Faber, Surgeon • George MacDonald

... away, I know not how. The Chief Pauper, who is the greatest man in the land of the Kosekin, made several attempts to converse with me, and was evidently very condescending and magnanimous in his own eyes; but I did not meet his advances graciously—he was too abhorrent. He was a hideous wretch, with eyes nearly closed and bleary, thick, matted hair, and fiendish expression—in short, a devil ...
— A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder • James De Mille

... to be exhibited and made a zany of in London, and especially because he will neither associate with, nor curry favour with, them who are neither gentlemen nor scholars,—attack his book with abuse and calumny. He is, perhaps, condescending too much when he takes any notice of such people; as, however, the English public is wonderfully led by cries and shouts, and generally ready to take part against any person who is either unwilling or unable to defend himself, he deems it ...
— The Romany Rye - A Sequel to 'Lavengro' • George Borrow

... wan day peeps in at Sir Leicester pardoning the repentant country in a majestically condescending dream; and at the cousins entering on various public employments, principally receipt of salary; and at the chaste Volumnia, bestowing a dower of fifty thousand pounds upon a hideous old general with a mouth of false teeth like a pianoforte ...
— Bleak House • Charles Dickens


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