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patronizing

[pey-truh-nahy-zing, pa-]

adjective

displaying or indicative of an offensively condescending manner: a patronizing greeting, accompanied by a gentle pat on the pack.

Origin:
1720–30; patronize + -ing²

Related forms

pa·tron·iz·ing·ly, adverb

non·pa·tron·iz·ing, adjective

qua·si-pa·tron·iz·ing, adjective

qua·si-pa·tron·iz·ing·ly, adverb

un·pa·tron·iz·ing, adjective

EXPAND

un·pa·tron·iz·ing·ly, adverb

COLLAPSE

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Patronizing is always a great word to know.

So is flibbertigibbet. Does it mean:

a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.

a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.

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Example Sentences

Yours is a voice of reason, or at least an eloquent appeal to it if I might say so at the risk of being patronizing.

These young people were infuriated by lofty and patronizing attitudes expressed by certain party representatives.

She also includes exercises so rudimentary they're almost patronizing.

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Dictionary.com Unabridged

verb (used with object), -ized, -iz·ing.

to give (a store, restaurant, hotel, etc.) one's regular patronage; trade with.

to behave in an offensively condescending manner toward: a professor who patronizes his students.

to act as a patron toward (an artist, institution, etc.); support.

Also, especially British, pa·tron·ise.

Origin:
1580–90; patron + -ize

Related forms

pa·tron·iz·a·ble, adjective

pa·tron·i·za·tion, noun

pa·tron·iz·er, noun

re·pa·tron·ize, verb (used with object), -ized, -iz·ing.

trans·pa·tron·ize, verb (used with object), -ized, -iz·ing.

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un·pa·tron·iz·a·ble, adjective

well-pa·tron·ized, adjective

COLLAPSE

Link To patronizing

Collins

World English Dictionary

patronizing or patronising (ˈpætrəˌnaɪzɪŋ)

—*adj*
	having a superior manner; condescending

patronising or patronising

—*adj*

'patronizingly or patronising

—*adv*

'patronisingly or patronising

—*adv*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

patronize

1580s, "to act as a patron towards," from patron (q.v.). Meaning "treat in a condescending way" is first attested 1797; sense of "give regular business to" is from 1801.

EXPAND

patronizing

1727, from patronize. Related: Patronizingly.

COLLAPSE

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"If tragedy is made effective by provoking the phenomenon which psychology calls "empathy"Mby causing us, that is to say, actually to participate in the feelings of another—pure comedy must achieve its effects by completely inhibiting that phenomenon and by establishing a sense of separateness from the creatures whose antics we observe. Such sympathy as we feel for them is lofty and patronizing, like our sympathy for a child whose sorrows we know to be (however intense for him) transitory and trivial."

-Joseph Wood Krutch

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