condescend

condescend to

To act as though others are less important or inferior to oneself. Jim has been condescending to us ever since he found out he got cast in that movie. Can you please stop condescending to me? Contrary to what you may think, I'm not an idiot.
See also: condescend

condescend to (do something)

To do something that one feels is unworthy or demeaning. Now that Jim thinks he's a big movie star, I doubt he'll condescend to talk to us common folk.
See also: condescend
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

condescend to do something

to agree to do something that is humbling or belittling. I will not condescend to respond to that remark. "Will you condescend to join us for dinner?" teased Bob.
See also: condescend

condescend to someone

to talk down to someone; to treat people as if they were below oneself; to patronize someone. Please do not condescend to me. There is no need to condescend to the children. They are just small, not stupid.
See also: condescend
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • condescend to
  • condescend to (do something)
  • condescending
  • for (one's) (own) sake
  • for sake
  • keep (someone or something) in sight
  • keep in sight
  • keep sight of
  • keep sight of (someone or something)
  • keep sight of somebody/something
References in periodicals archive
If there is anything truly controversial contained in Ratliffs poker-faced documentary, it is that he refuses to condescend or otherwise show his hand: Trinity church members can look at the film and feel as if they've been represented, even honored.
Bigotry and brimstone: a new documentary takes us inside Hell House, a Halloween creep show designed to scare kids away from "sins" like homosexuality
For he did not condescend to the objects of his desire; he knew them as people and gave them human identities in his art.
SCOUT'S HONOR
Cricket's one-day world champions are fuming that England still only condescend to give them a one-off Test.
Sri are not amused
Yet her work does not condescend to those who imbibe TV culture: there is empathy and at times a shared pleasure.
Jessica Diamond
The groups launched campaigns to remove the term from state and company forms, as they found that not only it condescends women but also does it bolster male machismo because it originates from the word 'virgin'.
French feminists seeking ban on 'sexist and condescending' mademoiselle
P & D, much condescended to at the time, has been somewhat shuffled aside in contemporary art history, and I can't say what Wright knows about it; still, he similarly asserts the aesthetic power of decorative motifs.
Richard Wright: Gagosian Gallery
Historians and Venetianists, however, will nor feel condescended to and may themselves want to borrow the excellent parish map.
Marriage Wars in Late Renaissance Venice.
The review of What It Means was condescending (and one condescends to a writer like Charles Murray at one's peril) and full of passages dismissing libertarian thought as the stuff of college late-night bull sessions, "fringe elements and half-baked ideas," with a passing swipe at REASON as soft on polygamy.
Mugging libertarians: The Weekly Standard's case against laissez faire
Now forgotten as a poet, Montesquiou had condescended to the fawning, yo unger ecrivain for years and never forgave him for successfully immortalizing him as a character.
Novel portraits: Rhonda Lieberman on The World of Proust.
Whether they deserve it or not, such readers may occasionally feel condescended to in this nevertheless informative and well-organized introductory text.
Understanding Shakespeare's England: A Companion for the American Reader