What's the difference between condescend and deign?

Condescend


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To stoop or descend; to let one's self down; to submit; to waive the privilege of rank or dignity; to accommodate one's self to an inferior.
  • (v. i.) To consent.

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.

Deign


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To esteem worthy; to consider worth notice; -- opposed to disdain.
  • (v. t.) To condescend to give or bestow; to stoop to furnish; to vouchsafe; to allow; to grant.
  • (v. i.) To think worthy; to vouchsafe; to condescend; - - followed by an infinitive.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) After much personal experimentation and endurance of catcalls from the ignorant circles in which I deign to mix, I can exclusively reveal that the answer is two, and best to go for one normal vest and one sportsback to emphasise your exciting double-vest action.
  • (2) Although Kabila appeared "quick and charming" - when he deigned to turn up - he was usually engaging in conspiratorial politics in Dar es Salaam, or negotiating with China's Chou En-lai or North Korea's Kim il-Sung.
  • (3) O'Brien did not attend this morning's meeting in Dublin, which is the first in a series of EGMs deigned to pave the way for a restructuring at INM .
  • (4) When he finally deigned to sit down formally, it was in typically theatrical fashion: after midnight, on a big bed in a five-star suite, the Monte Carlo casino winking beneath our balcony, the ocean sighing behind us.
  • (5) The clearance falls to Shaw, who trundles forward until someone deigns to close him down, which is quite a while.
  • (6) I love cats more than dogs, but the reason I love cats is because a cat would never deign to appear on an idiotic digital channel obedience programme.
  • (7) He could, for example, have cited the passage in English History 1914-45 where AJP Taylor (quite possibly one of those lefty historians whom Gove indicts but doesn't deign to name) recalled what happened on the afternoon of 5 August 1914 when prime minister Asquith called a council of war.
  • (8) This goes double for the occasions upon which he deigns to talk sense.
  • (9) In effect it is arguing for Greek pensioners and poorer wage earners to make further economies,” he continued, conceding that Athens had proposed a primary surplus target of 2.5% which neither the EU nor IMF had deigned to consider.
  • (10) Eventually, Schiavo pointed me in the direction of Fuld's lawyer, a former president of the New York Bar Association named Patricia Hynes – who, predictably enough, did not deign to reply to either phone calls or emails.
  • (11) In the end, writing about what you know – that hoary and potentially limiting, even stultifying piece of advice – might be best seen as applying to the type of story you're thinking of writing rather than to the details of what happens within it and perhaps, with that in mind, a better precept might be to write about what you love, rather than what you have a degree of contempt for but will deign to lower yourself to, just to show the rest of us how it's done.
  • (12) Here was an Etonian prime minister, asking for a licence for business as usual from those whom he deigns to rule over.
  • (13) He also deigned to offer advice to women affronted by non-consensual sexual advances.
  • (14) (Without, of course, deigning to read a word I've written).
  • (15) The genocide of Native Americans, the Atlantic Slave trade of Africans, the conquest of Mexicans, the colonization of Filipinos and Hawaiians, the mass importation of Chinese workers subsequently denied citizenship under the Chinese Exclusion Act : the War Machine created and then expanded the size of the United States using non-white bodies, waging war against them, and making them second-class citizens ( when it deigned to make them citizens at all ).
  • (16) But in a town where women fare so poorly on both the business and entertainment side, it seems like Hollywood should learn a thing or two about how best to describe the women who deign to stay – and succeed – despite the obstacles.
  • (17) "I cannot for the life of me understand how intelligent, sophisticated folk in the Conservative party think it is defensible in the 21st century to have a system that ends up with hundreds of MPs with jobs for life – and they do not even deign to get 50% of the vote every few years."
  • (18) Radical stuff, that: his Conservative, Labour and Independent opponents haven't yet deigned to put anything in the mail, but a quick check of their online profiles shows an abundance of similar bromides.
  • (19) Now that he’s finally deigning to let us hear one, it will be intriguing to find out if James’s music still sounds as alien and ahead-of-the-curve as it did in the 90s.
  • (20) In Curriculum Vitae, her purse-lipped autobiography of 1992 - a book as curious for the many tales it does not deign to tell as for those it does - she encourages readers to see her childhood as economically straitened but content.