Definition of "condescend"

condescend

/ˌkɒndɪˈsɛnd/

verb
third-person singular simple present condescends, present participle condescending, simple past and past participle condescended
1. (intransitive) To come down from one's superior position; to deign (to do something).
  Quotations
  Spain's mighty monarch […] / In gracious clemency, does condescend / On these conditions, to become your friend.
  1665, John Dryden, The Indian Emperour […]‎, London: Printed by J.M. for H. Herringman, published 1667, Act I, scene ii
  Fanny and little Harriet he seldom condescended to notice; but Mary Ann was something of a favourite.
  1847 December, Acton Bell [pseudonym; Anne Brontë], chapter V, in Agnes Grey. […], London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […]
2. (intransitive) To treat (someone) as though inferior; to be patronizing (toward someone); to talk down (to someone).
  Quotations
  I admire that admiration which the genteel world sometimes extends to the commonalty. There is no more agreeable object in life than to see Mayfair folks condescending.
  1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter XIV, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848
  "You must know," said Estella, condescending to me as a brilliant and beautiful woman might, "that I have no heart."
  1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter XXIX, in Great Expectations […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861
  Ermine never let any one be condescending to her, and conducted the conversation with her usual graceful good breeding.
  1880, Charlotte M. Yonge, chapter 7, in Clever Woman of the Family
  At her invitation he outlined for her the succeeding chapters with terse military accuracy ; and what she liked best and best understood was avoidance of that false modesty which condescends, turning technicality into pabulum.
  1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company
3. (transitive, rare, nonstandard) To treat (someone) as though inferior; to be patronizing toward (someone); to talk down to (someone).
  Quotations
  “I didn't mean to condescend you, Mr. Shreck.”
  2007, Damian Westfall, Bennett's Cow-Eyed Girl
  “I'm not trying to condescend you, Ben.”
  2010, Jaron Lee Knuth, Demigod
  THOMAS. [...] Does my anger deserve your condescension?ANDIE. I wasn't condescending you; I was just asking.THOMAS. No. You said “angry black man.” Like my anger only exists in a stereotype. That's condescending.
  2014, Greg Kalleres, Honky, page 31
4. (intransitive, obsolete) To consent, agree.
  Quotations
  Than were they condesended that Kyng Arthure and syr mordred shold mete betwyxte bothe theyr hoostes and eueryche of them shold brynge fourtene persones"Then were they condescended that King Arthur and Sir Mordred should meet betwixt both their hosts, and everych of them should bring fourteen persons"
  1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur Book XXI, Chapter iv, leaf 423r
  Can they think me so broken, so debased / With corporal servitude, that my mind ever / Will condescend to such absurd commands?
  1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […]”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], lines 1134–1136
  "This is the pay I get for condescending to let you go with me."
  1868, Horatio Alger, chapter 3, in Struggling Upward
5. (intransitive, obsolete) To come down.

Definition of "condescend"

condescend

verb

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations