CONDESCENDING

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does condescending mean? 

• CONDESCENDING (adjective)
  The adjective CONDESCENDING has 1 sense:

1. (used of behavior or attitude) characteristic of those who treat others with condescension

  Familiarity information: CONDESCENDING used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONDESCENDING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(used of behavior or attitude) characteristic of those who treat others with condescension

Synonyms:

arch; condescending; patronising; patronizing

Similar:

superior (of or characteristic of high rank or importance)

Derivation:

condescendingness (affability to your inferiors and temporary disregard for differences of position or rank)

 Context examples 

This, said the stranger, with a certain condescending roll in his voice, and a certain indescribable air of doing something genteel, which impressed me very much, is Master Copperfield.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“Come in, Mr. Dance,” says he, very stately and condescending.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

She was quite one of her worthies—the most amiable, affable, delightful woman—just as accomplished and condescending as Mrs. Elton meant to be considered.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The party drove off in very good spirits; Sir Walter prepared with condescending bows for all the afflicted tenantry and cottagers who might have had a hint to show themselves, and Anne walked up at the same time, in a sort of desolate tranquillity, to the Lodge, where she was to spend the first week.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Humble, humble—condescending even to poor Dick, who is simple and knows nothing.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I look down on the line of boys below me, with a condescending interest in such of them as bring to my mind the boy I was myself, when I first came there.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It was Mr. Micawber, with his eye-glass, and his walking-stick, and his shirt-collar, and his genteel air, and the condescending roll in his voice, all complete!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Instead of rambling this party had preserved a dignified homogeneity, and assumed to itself the function of representing the staid nobility of the countryside—East Egg condescending to West Egg, and carefully on guard against its spectroscopic gayety.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)