Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To descend to the level of one considered inferior; lower oneself. See Synonyms at stoop1.
- v. To deal with people in a patronizingly superior manner.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To descend from the superior position, rank, or dignity proper or usually accorded to one; voluntarily waive ceremony and assume equality with an inferior; be complaisant, yielding, or consenting in dealings with inferiors; deign.
- To stoop or submit; be subject; yield.
- To assent; agree.
- To agree to submit or furnish; specify; vouchsafe: with upon: as, to condescend upon particulars.
- Synonyms To stoop, deign, vouchsafe, bend.
Wiktionary
- v. intransitive To come down from one's superior position; to deign (to do something).
- v. intransitive To treat (someone) as though inferior; to be patronizing (toward someone); to talk down (to someone).
- v. intransitive, obsolete To consent, agree.
- v. intransitive, obsolete To come down.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. 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.
- v. obsolete To consent.
WordNet 3.0
- v. behave in a patronizing and condescending manner
- v. treat condescendingly
- v. do something that one considers to be below one's dignity
- v. debase oneself morally, act in an undignified, unworthy, or dishonorable way
Etymologies
- From Middle English condescenden, from Old French condescendre, from Late Latin condescendere ("to let one's self down, stoop, condescend"), from Latin com- ("together") + descendere ("to come down"); see descend. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English condescenden, from Old French condescendre, from Late Latin condēscendere : Latin com-, intensive pref.; see com- + dēscendere, to descend; see descend. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Will you, Wallace, again condescend to save a country that has treated you so ungratefully?”
“Does one of your name condescend to a dirty trade, and serve women that are not fit to tie a Douglas's shoe, and then come to me and talk of what's possible.”
“Absolutely, Bellville, if I do condescend, which is yet extremely doubtful, we will live in the style of lovers; I hate the dull road of common marriages: no impertinent presuming on the name of husband; no saucy freedoms; I will continue to be courted, and shall expect as much flattery, and give myself as many scornful airs, as if I had never honored you with my hand.”
“This last deficiency the guide is in the habit of supplying -- to such as condescend to accept his assistance -- by fastening a leathern strap round his waist, and giving the end of it into the hand of the traveller.”
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 61, No. 376, February, 1847
“To say that Coleridge would not 'condescend' would be”
“No, I won't "condescend" to serve as stenographer of who said what at the forum - nor did I expect that from bloggers here.”
“I won't "condescend" to serve as stenographer of who said what at the forum”
“I guess I would just challenge the notion that I "condescend" to my constituents, or otherwise treat them disrespectfully, whether in the course of constituent service (which I do a lot of) or in interpersonal communication, or over the radio.”
“You continue to condescend without addressing the main points:”
“He loved how he projected authority without insulting anyone, how he disregarded their babbled protests without appearing dismissive, how he bent them to his purpose without seeming to bully or condescend.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘condescend’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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gre
municipal, whit, dissembler, berate, liberally, embellish, dissimilitude, histrionics, flamboyance, bombastic, bovine, calumny and 142 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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From reading
Collected from reading
venerate, reprobate, reticent, adoration, ethereal, ephemeral, equivocal, contumacious, heinous, solicitous, agnostic, aberration and 335 more...
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EN - eesily missspellable wirds
accessible, accommodate, achievement, acquaintance, address, advertisement, alleged, athletics, attendance, auxiliary, believe, challenge and 118 more...
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Words sung by: Belle and Sebastian
beguiling, herbaceous, peninsula, suffragette, damascan, hastening, berserk, overtime, leccy, bestow, swathe, arab strap and 193 more...
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SAT words
tergiversate, cymotrichous, vigilance, wince, consternation, cower, neutralize, euphony, cacophony, misanthrope, bibliophile, kleptomania and 81 more...
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Aviator's supplement
anybody can add to this list which would help our goal to disperse more words...
raillery, scruples, conspicuous, concupiscent, ramshackled, exultant, innate, condescend, pariah, countenance, ply, vitiate and 6 more...
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2
transition, contents, conformity, division, labour, prominent, complexity, interrelationalship, similarity, note, tentative, convey and 75 more...
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SAT vocab
abash, abate, abdicate, aberration, abhor, abject, abnegate, abortive, absolve, abstruse, accolade, accost and 175 more...
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Faves
nepenthe, cupidity, anodyne, obdurate, doleful, obsolescent, quale, piquant, velleity, inchoate, disport, facile and 366 more...
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WL_2
repulsion, loath, repugnant, despicable, odious, abhorrence, execrable, detestable, scurvy, animosity, rancor, insurgent and 83 more...
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NTDW1
template, modal, sublingual, tandem, polycentric, septuagenarian, token, irrevocable, denotive, augural, aberrant, phlebotomy and 1188 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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GRE
acrimony, verisimilitude, tenebrious, tenebrous, dishabille, unfettered, deplorable, woebegone, credulity, naïveté, mitigate, meliorate and 475 more...
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Joshee Word List
gash, engross, entail, stoke, ode, vacillate, aspersion, asperity, clan, kith, prospect, nag and 229 more...
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