CONDESCEND • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Condescend

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/kˌɑndɪsˈɛnd/ Listen

verb

Condescend v. i. (past & past part. condescended; pres. part. condescending)

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. "Condescend to men of low estate." "Can they think me so broken, so debased With corporal servitude, that my mind ever Will condescend to such absurd commands?" "Spain's mighty monarch, In gracious clemency, does condescend, On these conditions, to become your friend." Note: Often used ironically, implying an assumption of superiority. "Those who thought they were honoring me by condescending to address a few words to me."

To consent. (Obs.) "All parties willingly condescended heruento."

Synonyms: To yield; stoop; descend; deign; vouchsafe.

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Etymology of 'Condescend'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Condescend" Quotes from Famous Books

... or any of these views, history will stand your friend. History, in its passive irony, will make no objection. Like Jarno, in Goethe's novel, it will not condescend to argue with you, and will provide you with abundant illustrations of any thing which you may wish ...

— Prose Masterpieces from Modern Essayists • James Anthony Froude, Edward A. Freeman, William Ewart Gladstone, John Henry Newman and Leslie Steph

... when they entertain such infamous sentiments," cried Blucher, wildly stamping with his foot; "they should hang the fellows who are so mean and cowardly as to think that Prussia would be lost if her mortal enemy did not condescend to sustain her. Ah, if the king had listened to me only once, we should have long since driven the French out of the country, and our poor soldiers would not freeze to death in Russia as auxiliaries of Bonaparte. When the danger is greatest, every thing must be risked in order to win ...

— NAPOLEON AND BLUCHER • L. Muhlbach

... impetuously. "You have every advantage! What is it that you cannot dance? I despise men who whirl about like puppets: I have never seen them waltzing but they must make themselves ridiculous. I am glad you cannot dance: you are on the level of too much dignity and noble behavior to condescend to such petty things. And surely you do not want to run a foot-race!" she added with an intensity of disdain which made me laugh, high-wrought and painful although my mood was. Then her lip trembled, and I saw tears in her eyes as she went on. "If you were a cripple," she ...

— Lippincott's Magazine, December 1878 • Various

... riding back from one of these visits—it had been (if the Muse will smile and condescend) to buy a packet of hairpins—when, half-way up the village street, she spied a horseman approaching. An instant ...

— Lady Good-for-Nothing • A. T. Quiller-Couch

... placed before him, but with no better success. Lewie had once seen the contents of a beautiful work-box of his sister's, which stood in the centre of the side-board: at this he pointed, and for this he screamed. Nothing else would please him; at nothing else would he condescend to look. ...

— Lewie - Or, The Bended Twig • Cousin Cicely

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