DEIGN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does deign mean? 

• DEIGN (verb)
  The verb DEIGN has 1 sense:

1. do something that one considers to be below one's dignity

  Familiarity information: DEIGN used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DEIGN (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they deign    ... he / she / it deigns   
Past simple: deigned   
Past participle: deigned   
-ing form: deigning   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Do something that one considers to be below one's dignity

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

condescend; deign; descend

Hypernyms (to "deign" is one way to...):

act; move (perform an action, or work out or perform (an action))

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s to INFINITIVE

 Context examples 

The Foreign Minister alone I could have withstood, but when the Premier also deigned to visit my humble roof!

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"What I want to know is when you're going to get married. Also, you find out from your Hermann if he will deign to permit you to accept a wedding present from me."

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

“Perhaps the signori would deign to come under our roof, father,” said the maiden.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Jim only had seen where it had fallen, and he would not deign even to point it out to a beggar.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Mrs. Bennet deigned not to make any reply, but, unable to contain herself, began scolding one of her daughters.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Alas! I am unclean to His eyes, and shall be until He may deign to let me stand forth in His sight as one of those who have not incurred His wrath.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I deigned to make him no reply; and, taking up my hat, was going out to bed, when he came between me and the door.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I'll have the answer for you here on Wednesday morning—if he ever deigns to answer you.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He had deigned an explanation, almost an apology, and I did not feel insensible to his condescension, and would not seem so.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Presently she came back up the road again, her head haughtily in the air, not deigning to take any further notice of her silent attendant.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)