condescending

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔn.dɪ.sɛnd.ɪŋ/, /ˈkɔnˌdi.sɛnd.ɪŋ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌkɑndəˈsɛndɪŋ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛndɪŋ

condescending (comparative more condescending, superlative most condescending)

1. Assuming a tone of superiority, or a patronizing attitude.

   Quit talking to me in that condescending tone! You always treat me like a child!

   • 1946, William Hatfield, Buffalo Jim, Oxford: Geoffrey Cumberlege, page 70:

     The housekeeper, a very decorative brunette of thirty-five with a pseudo-English accent, greeted him with a mixture of grateful effusion and condescending patronage.

   • 2022 January 12, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Unhappy start to 2022”, in RAIL, number 948, page 3:

     As for the IRP, Secretary of State Grant Shapps continues to peddle snake oil, smoke and mirrors. His reaction to near-universal IRP condemnation from politicians, local and national media, and all but a few rail specialists was to dismiss the lot of us (in the condescending and patronising tone we have now come to expect) as "critics and naysayers".

• (assuming a tone of superiority): patronizing

• condescendence
• condescension

condescending

1. present participle and gerund of condescend