Meaning

(transitive) To act as a patron of; to defend, protect, or support..

Definitions by Sense

1. (transitive) To act as a patron of; to defend, protect, or support.
2. (transitive) To make oneself a customer of a business, especially a regular customer.
3. (transitive) To assume a tone of unjustified superiority toward; to talk down to, to treat condescendingly.
4. (transitive, obsolete) To blame, to reproach.

Example Sentences

A great perſonage aſked lord S——h, how the citizens came to patronize ſuch a profligate as Wilkes. His lordſhip replied, "They would patronize the devil, if he aſſiſted them to pull down a miniſter."

But she is totally devoid of elegant accomplishments, excepting the knowledge of French and Italian, which she acquired from the most grotesque monster you ever beheld, whom my father has engaged as a kind of librarian, and whom he patronizes, I believe, to show his defiance of the world's opinion.

We ask her [the government] to patronize scholars as she does her law makers. We ask her to patronize pioneers in science as she does pioneers in the woods. We ask her to support the officers of colleges as she does the officers of state, her governor, her secretary, and her judges; and then the college hall may be thrown open as it should be to every poor youth in the community free of expense.

I can't go anywhere without being Patronized. I don't want to be Patronized. If I buy a ticket for a Flower Show, or a Music Show, or any sort of Show, and pay pretty heavy for it, why am I to be Patroned and Patronessed as if the Patrons and Patronesses treated me? If there's a good thing to be done, can't it be done on its own merits? [...] I wish somebody would tell me whether other countries get Patronized to anything like the extent of this one!

In those days, as now, the Royal Naval Colleges as well as Sandhurst were well patronised by the squirearchy and the youths of the blue-blood who found in the training there a congenial calling, when they were not satisfied with military training as a hobby. [...] The attraction of military and naval life was enhanced by the fact that the Royal family patronised it.

Music and dance, in ancient times, were mainly patronized by religion, in the same way as art was patronized in the west by the church. Right from [the] epic period, through [the] Gupta and Mughal period, art including music has been patronized by kings, princes and nobles.

"A chearful glaſs, then," ſaid Sir Sedley, "you think horridly intolerable?" [...] "Well, the glaſs is not what I patroniſe," ſaid Sir Theophilus; "it hips me ſo conſumedly the next day; no, I can't patroniſe the glaſs." / "Not patroniſe wine?" cried Lord Newford; "O hang it! O curſe it! that's too bad, Offy![…]"

Mr John Puffingham was a patron—a patron to the diversified layers and strata of men and things pertaining to sublunary matters. He patronised his hatter, who, once a year, smoothed a cheap-and-shabby for his bald and shining brow. He patronised his tailor in the neighbourhood of the Minories. He patronised his washerwoman, his dustman—a pawnbroker he once patronised when an unexpected call was made upon his exhausted exchequer.

Word Forms

• patronizes
• patronizing
• patronized
• patronise

Synonyms for patronize

Antonyms for patronize

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When Should You Use Patronize?

Use patronize when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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