condescend
Pronunciation: /ˌkɒndɪˈsɛnd/
The English word “condescend” has 11 meanings listed here.
verb
- To come down or go down; to descend.
- To come down from a superior position and do something; to deign; (with a negative connotation) to stoop.
- To treat someone as though inferior; to talk down to someone; to patronize.
- Chiefly followed by on or upon: to go into detail; to particularize, to specify.
- To agree to something; to accede, to assent, to consent; also, to reach an agreement.
- To give way or yield in a deferential manner; to be amenable or compliant.
- To graciously give; to vouchsafe.
- To reach a certain point; to settle on.
- To secretly make plans, usually to bring about a bad or illegal result; to conspire, to plot.
- To treat (someone) as though inferior; to talk down to (someone); to patronize.
- Often preceded by the dummy pronoun it: to agree to (something); to consent.
Etymology
From Middle English condescenden, condescendre (“to deign, condescend; to accede graciously; to agree; to agree to, give consent; to make a concession, yield; etc.”), from Old French condescendre (“to descend, go down; to agree or assent to”) (modern French condescendre), from Ecclesiastical Latin condēscendere, the present active infinitive of condēscendō (“to stoop down; to condescend”), from…
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- condescend upon
- condescendence
- condescendency
- condescender
About this dictionary
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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.