Word Finder - condescended

definition

To come down from one's superior position; to deign (to do something).

definition

To treat (someone) as though inferior; to be patronizing (toward someone); to talk down (to someone).

definition

(possibly nonstandard) To treat (someone) as though inferior; to be patronizing toward (someone); to talk down to (someone).

definition

To consent, agree.

definition

To come down.

The most powerful states in Europe condescended to make payments to them and to tolerate their insults.

When at last, after the catastrophe of Poltava (June 1709) and the flight into Turkey, he condescended to use diplomatic methods, it was solely to prolong, not to terminate, the war.

When the abbot condescended to dine in the refectory, his chaplains waited upon him with the dishes, a servant, if necessary, assisting them.

Cardinal Richelieu himself, preceded by lesser dignitaries, condescended to visit Amyraut privately, to persuade him to kneel; but Amyraut held resolutely to his point and carried it.

The council, which met on the 5th of June 1245, was attended only by those prepared to support the pope's cause; and though Frederick condescended to be represented by his justiciar, Thaddeus of Suessa, the judgment was a foregone conclusion.

Disregarding the wishes of the Great Council, and excluding all the more important of the barons and bishops from office, he acted as his own chief minister and never condescended to justify his policy except when he stood in need of subsidies.

His conversation was still interesting, especially when it turned upon his recollections, and though his judgments were sometimes severe enough, he never condescended to the scandalous.

Zeus gave laws to Minos; Apollo revealed the Spartan constitution to Lycurgus; Zaleucus received the laws for the Locrians from Athena in a dream; Vishnu and Manu condescended to draw up law-books in India.

Some of them played the part of professional jesters (like the later buffoons and court fools), and kept collections of witticisms ready for use at their patrons' table; others relied upon flattery, others again condescended to the most degrading devices (Plutarch, De adulatore, 23; De educatione puerorum, 17).

Under stress of the imminence of the peril, which Nicholas was at no pains to conceal, the duke was driven from concession to concession, until at last the tsar, having gained all he wanted, condescended to come to an arrangement with Great Britain in the Greek question.

The latter feeling ultimately triumphed; he condescended to accept in the dying days of Grenville's cabinet, and to retain through the "lutestring" administration of Lord Rockingham - "pretty summer wear," as Townshend styled it, "but it will never stand the winter" - the highly paid position of paymaster-general, refusing to identify himself more closely with its fortunes as chancellor of the exchequer.

As Hanna Segal points out in her excellent foreword to the book, they were not talked down to or condescended to.

He was also sent to carry the tribute which the United States still condescended to pay to the dey of Algiers, in order to secure exemption from capture for its merchant ships in the Mediterranean - a service which he performed punctually, though with great disgust.

In stature he was little; his countenance was always sad, and he never condescended to laughter.

The success it gained was doubtless due in some degree to the difficulty which most men had in comprehending it, for it was enwrapped in alluring mystery, but more to the confidence with which it was announced as being the long-looked-for key to the wonders of creation, since its promoters did not hesitate to term it the discovery of " the Natural System," though they condescended, by way of explanation to less exalted intellects than their own, to allow it the more moderate appellation of the Circular or, Quinary System.

It was, indeed, not easy to combine that respect and reverence which the emperor required should be paid to him, with that open criticism of his words which seemed necessary (even for selfdefence) when the monarch condescended to become the censor of the opinions and actions of large parties and classes among his subjects.