condescend

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“
He saw for the first time how a great man may condescend -- how unostentatiously, how fully, how delightfully.

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Definitions (12)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. intransitive verb To descend to the level of one considered inferior; lower oneself. See Synonyms at stoop1.
  2. intransitive verb To deal with people in a patronizingly superior manner.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (5)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • Giulietta came to her for advice, saying that she longed to throw over Count Gallenberg for “that beautiful horrible Beethoven—if it were not such a come-down.” She did not condescend, as we have seen, and lived to regret it bitterly. —  The Love Affairs of Great Musicians, Volume 1
  • If ye think it concerns you, I pray you hearken to this, and condescend(497) upon these two grounds, that the question may be right stated. —  The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning
  • Too ready to condescend, I have neglected to keep up, with those whom I thought loved me, the prestige of royalty. —  The Queen's Necklace
  • It was in vain that Marlboro' tried to reopen the subject of their mute warfare with St. George. St. George would not condescend, neither would he sully Éloise's name by bandying it about with another lover. —  The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 80, June, 1864
  • He offers a thousand apologies for his unceremonious entrance into your august presence, and implores you to condescend----_Ow! —  A Popular Schoolgirl
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

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condescend:   condescending
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English condescenden, from Old French condescendre, from Late Latin condēscendere : Latin com-, intensive pref.; see com- + dēscendere, to descend; see descend.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English condescenden, from Old French (and F.) condescendre = Spanish Portuguese condescender = Italian condescendere, from Late Latin condescendere, let one's self down, stoop, condescend, from Latin com-, together, + descendere, come down: see descend.
 

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/kɑndəˈsɛnd/
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