deign

English

Etymology

From Middle English deignen, from Old French deignier (“consider worthy”), from Latin dignārī, present active infinitive of digno (“consider worthy”), from dignus (“worthy”). Cognate to dignity.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -eɪn
• Homophones: Dane

Verb

deign (third-person singular simple present deigns, present participle deigning, simple past and past participle deigned)

1. (intransitive) To condescend; to accept as appropriate to one's dignity.

   He didn't even deign to give us a nod of the head; he thought us that far beneath him.

   The priest deigned a glance at the girl, but replied to her by addressing her husband.

2. (transitive) To condescend to give; to do something.

   They didn't deign us our clothing before we were put outside.

Related terms

• dignity

Translations

(intransitive) to condescend

• Bulgarian: благоволявам (bg) (blagovoljavam), снизхождавам (bg) (snizhoždavam)
• Dutch: verwaardigen (nl)
• Finnish: suvaita (fi)
• Georgian: ღირსად ჩათვალა (ka) (ḡirsad č’at’vala) აღირსა (ka) (aḡirsa)
• German: herablassen (de)

• Hungarian: lesüllyed (hu), leereszkedik (hu)
• Latin: digno (la)
• Macedonian: повела (mk) (póvela), удостојува (mk) (udostójuva)
• Russian: снизойти (ru) (snizoiti) n, соблаговолить (ru) (soblagovolit') n, соизволить (ru) (soizvolit') n
• Serbo-Croatian: udostojiti (sh)

Anagrams

• dinge