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/kɑndiˈsɛnʃən/ · noun
The act of condescending; a manner of behaving in an outwardly polite way that nevertheless implies superiority to another; patronizing courtesy toward inferiors..
Conscious condescension breeds panderers and enemies, not friends.
Mrs. Howard's fête at Marble Hill more than realised all expectations. The very spring put itself forward to please her; or, rather borrowed a day from summer. The king and queen were in the last extremities of royal condescension. It was enough to make domestic felicity the fashion from one end of the British empire to the other, just to see the august couple walking arm in arm through the gardens;...
There comes an end to all things; the most capacious measure is filled at last; and this brief condescension to my evil finally destroyed the balance of my soul. And yet I was not alarmed; the fall seemed natural, like a return to the old days before I had made my discovery.
"Unfortunate situation," she replied, making an effort to moderate her superciliousness to mere condescension."
"Huh?" he said. "Pardon me, my dear sir," repeated the Major, blandly, smoothly, and with an air of – well, not condescension, but gracious familiarity.
The shofer opens the door of the after cockpit of the machine, and the man gets out fust, treadin' gingerly but grand, as if he was doin' the ground a condescension by steppin' on it.
We believe our Northampton garden competition tends to do this. It brings together in neighborly fellowship those whom the discrepancies of social accomplishments would forever hold asunder and it brings them together without forced equality or awkward condescension […]
He addressed me as Dave. (There was a note of condescension as well as of admiration in this "Dave" of his. It implied that I was a shrewd fellow and an excellent customer, singularly successful and reliable, but that I was his inferior, all the same – a Jew, a social pariah.)
Use condescension when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.
Condescension means The act of condescending; a manner of behaving in an outwardly polite way that nevertheless implies superiority to another; patronizing courtesy toward inferiors..
Common synonyms include condescendence, disdain, patronage, superciliousness.
The opposite depends on the specific sense.
Conscious condescension breeds panderers and enemies, not friends.
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