What's the difference between complacent and condescending?

Complacent


Definition:

  • (a.) Self-satisfied; contented; kindly; as, a complacent temper; a complacent smile.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) It arguably became too comfortable for Rodgers' team, with complacency and slack defending proving a dangerous brew.
  • (2) Such margins would be enough to put the first female president in the White House, but Democrats are guarding against complacency.
  • (3) He continued: "There's quite a lot of complacency going on and self-delusion going on.
  • (4) This posture of racially tinged complacency underlies most of the frequent backlashes endured by western feminists.
  • (5) Extensive research among the Afghan National Army – 68 focus groups – and US military personnel alike concluded: "One group sees the other as a bunch of violent, reckless, intrusive, arrogant, self-serving profane, infidel bullies hiding behind high technology; and the other group [the US soldiers] generally views the former as a bunch of cowardly, incompetent, obtuse, thieving, complacent, lazy, pot-smoking, treacherous, and murderous radicals.
  • (6) "One [of the dangers] is complacency, generated by a few quarters of good economic data.
  • (7) And if he wins substantially, it is quite possible that he will feel comfortable and complacent and focus again on his nationalist agenda rather than the economy.” At the standing bar, Tani, a striking figure in his dark-blue kimono and a trilby, puts down his drink, pauses, and recalls the time he spent working abroad.
  • (8) His approach, however, will be challenged by Labour, which this week accused the chancellor of "breathtaking complacency".
  • (9) But we shouldn’t be complacent – less than half of GCSE students are taking a foreign language, and more need to carry their languages forward into their careers and lives for the UK to really profit on the world stage - both culturally and economically.
  • (10) Perhaps it was a little bit of complacency, a sense that their mere presence on the pitch would be sufficient to beat Newcastle, but collectively they rarely matched Klopp’s dynamism in the technical area.
  • (11) The barrier to Rio is high and Pavey is not complacent: to ensure automatic qualification she will have to finish first in the trials and reach the 10,000m Olympic qualifying standard of 32min 15sec.
  • (12) But let's abandon any complacency that such injustice could not happen again.
  • (13) Applications and limitations of the findings to the problem of complacency in automated systems are discussed.
  • (14) The director of public prosecutions issued a timely warning against complacency this week.
  • (15) A recent survey of 1,002 people in Wales has supported these earlier findings, but found additionally that discriminatory and complacent attitudes on AIDS or towards people with the 'AIDS virus' are held by a significant proportion of the population.
  • (16) Mike Penning, the road safety minister, said: "I am not complacent about road safety even though Britain has some of the safest roads in the world.
  • (17) Meanwhile, an influential cross-party Westminster committee of MPs and peers has accused the UK government's national security council of complacency for failing to carry out any assessment about the impact Scotland's independence would have on the UK's defence and the future of Trident.
  • (18) He wrote on Twitter on Saturday that complacency had allowed racism to prevail and reiterated those comments in a column for the Sun on Sunday.
  • (19) "But even if domestic violence remains a priority for the Crown Prosecution Service, there remains the wider issue of complacency."
  • (20) That is in large part why Alistair Darling, the former Labour chancellor and chairman of the cross-party pro-UK campaign Better Together, warned in a Guardian interview last week that complacency was his campaign's greatest enemy.

Condescending


Definition:

  • (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Condescend

Example Sentences:

  • (1) It somewhat condescendingly divides the population into 15 groups – among them, Terraced Melting Pot (“Lower-income workers, mostly young, living in tightly packed inner-urban terraces”), and Suburban Mind-sets (“Maturing families on mid-range incomes living a moderate lifestyle in suburban semis”).
  • (2) For instance the 'Sarah's Law' campaign there were quite a lot of people who were quite condescending ... and actually the public were quite worried about this.
  • (3) At stake: rice cakes, a gift basket, and a somewhat condescending hockey puck.
  • (4) The somewhat condescending implication is: "You'll all get there in the end."
  • (5) This weekend the very accomplished Rona Fairhead, former FT chief executive and now the government’s choice to be the new chair of the BBC Trust, was described namelessly in a Telegraph headline as “mother of three.” It was decidedly reminiscent of that Sunday Times front page headline in April, “Grandmother, 71, tackles slave traffickers for the Pope” , sparking condescending mental images of a sweet little ol’ granny pummelling evil-doers with her cane.
  • (6) It is snobbish and condescending to mock any creative or practical manual work.
  • (7) Taken out of context, and interspersed with condescending comments to backbench MPs, Cameron's quote is entirely misleading."
  • (8) But the condescending tone of the letter, which suggested that Iranians do not understand the American political process, provoked harsh words from both the Obama administration and even Iran’s foreign minister.
  • (9) You could say that acceptance of homosexuality became one of the key measures of modernity long before societies like ours in Britain condescended to update their anti-gay structures.
  • (10) That, I wanted to write about - in a sense it sounds condescending, and I don't mean it quite this way - I wanted to write about the way popular culture is an inheritor of something else.
  • (11) Since having come back to London, I've spoken to a few of these rare exotic birds – the Femaleus footballus writerus – and all have stories of casual sexism: being mistaken for tea ladies in the press centre; being condescended to by managers in press conferences; being demoted by their bosses when they have children, which is most definitely not a problem in the more female-dominated fashion business.
  • (12) And it would be nothing short of condescending for screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and director David Fincher to have concocted some fictional spunky-girl nerd character or a wise female comp sci professor in an attempt to make their film more female-friendly.
  • (13) Gravity was a huge, old-fashioned spectacle of a film, a terrific experience, superb in its simplicity and Barnumesque flair for movie showmanship, but it has been dismissed in some quarters (rather condescendingly) because of the alleged hokiness of its dialogue and characterisation.
  • (14) Tedros said the ICC was "condescending" towards the continent.
  • (15) When they resisted, he rounded on them with a mix of expletives, threats and condescending insults, including the poisonous utterance "pleb".
  • (16) The people in the villages of Los Negros seem to be puzzled, confused and, in some cases, fearful of the developments at Lombrum … It is a shame that this has happened because it could easily have been avoided.” The report blames in part the culture gap between local people and the predominantly military, police and security types working at the centre, whose behaviour was noticeably condescending and whose physical appearance villagers found intimidating.
  • (17) We were totally opposed, totally patronised, totally condescended and actually vilified, really.” She described how she was branded “Harriet Harperson” and “hapless Harriet” while arguing for basic changes that are now considered the norm, such as men getting time off when their babies are born.
  • (18) What's more is that Sorkin's already been called out this year for his condescending treatment of Globe and Mail reporter Sarah Prickett , who he famously referred to as "internet girl" at a press conference.
  • (19) Sadly, you can't read those ancient lines now without hearing them uttered in that patiently condescending voice.
  • (20) I just thought it was a jaw-droppingly condescending way of treating someone who is just proudly hanging some flags outside their home.