Pronunciations (2)
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/deɪn/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
- Received-Pronunciation
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deɪn
Verb
To consider it appropriate or worthy to do or give (something), often when it is seen as beneath one's dignity; to condescend, to vouchsafe.
Usage- Transitive
- in the negative
- Examples
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Nor vvould vve deigne him buriall of his men, / Till he diſburſed, at Saint Colmes ynch, / Ten thouſand Dollars, to our generall vſe.
More examples (1)
[T]hough this my vvorke, ovvne not vvorth enough to deſerve your patronage, yet ſuch is your benigne humanity, that I am confident you vvill daigne it your protection, under vvhich it vvillingly ſhrovvdes it ſelfe.
And sure a willing ear she well might deign / To one whose tales may equally engage / The wondering mind of youth, the thoughtful heart of age.
More examples (2)
He, who usually hardly deigned a glance at his infants, now lay gazing with inexpressible softness and sadness at the little sleeping face; […]
O LORD, Jesus Christ, who, before ascending into heaven, didst promise to send the Holy Ghost to finish thy work in the souls of thy Apostles and disciples, deign to grant the same Holy Spirit to me, that he may perfect in my soul the work of thy grace and thy love.
To consider it appropriate or worthy to accept or take (something).
Usage- Obsolete
- Transitive
- Antonyms
- Examples
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Shee deignes not my good will, but doth reprove / And of my rurall muſick holdeth ſcorne.
More examples (3)
Go, go, be gone, to ſaue your Ship from vvrack, / VVhich cannot periſh hauing thee aboarde, / Being deſtin’d to a drier death on ſhore: / I muſt goe ſend ſome better Meſſenger, / I fear my Iulia vvould not daigne my lines, / Receiuing them from ſuch a vvorthleſſe poſt.
Thou haſt eſtrang'd thy ſelf, and deigneſt not our land: / Farre off to others novv, thy fauour honour breeds, / And high diſdaine doth cauſe thee ſhun our clime (I feare) […]
[A]t thy heele / Did Famine follovv, […] Thou did'ſt drinke / The ſtale [urine] of Horſes, and the gilded Puddle / VVhich Beaſts vvould cough at. Thy pallat thẽ [then] did daine / The rougheſt Berry, on the rudeſt Hedge.
Often followed by of: to consider (someone) as worthy of something; to dignify.
Usage- Obsolete
- Transitive
- Examples
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VVill you not daigne his Majeſty vvith an Anſvver?
To consider it appropriate or worthy to do something, often when it is seen as beneath one's dignity; to condescend, to think fit, to vouchsafe.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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He didn’t even deign to give us a nod of the head; he thought us that far beneath him.
For Edvvard vvill defeind the Tovvne, and thee, / And all thoſe friends, that deine to follovv mee.
More examples (10)
My fathers Palace, Madam, vvill be proud / To entertaine your preſence, if youle daine / To make repoſe vvithin.
[…] Samballat gaue his daughter Nicaſo to Manaſſes, the brother of Iaddus the High Prieſt, in the time of Darius the laſt Perſian Monarch. This Nehemia mentioneth, but deigneth not to name him, affirming that he chaſed him from him, of vvhich ſome deſcant vvhether it vvere by exile, or excommunication, or ſome other puniſhment.
Them thus impolid beheld / VVith pittie Heav'ns high King, and to him call'd / Raphael, the ſociable Spirit, that deign'd / To travel vvith Tobias, and ſecur'd / His marriage vvith the ſeaventimes vvedded Maid.
Fame, […] Deſcribes him bold, and fiercely fond of povver, […] Impatient of Command, and hardly daigning / To be controll'd by his Imperious Mother.
O Son [Jesus] of his Love, / VVho deignedſt to die, / Our Curſe to remove, / Our Pardon to buy; […]
The grave and silent peasant whose very dog will hardly deign to bark at you, […]
Cæsar will deign to choose his wine? Sicilian, Lesbian, Chian—
It is about time that Bishop [Thomas Louis] Heylen is coming and deigns to visit us; he has been in Chicago twice, only a few hours from here by train, but he did not come here.
He will deign to finish this simple fare and wash it down with nothing more Lucullan than beer.
Before I could knock, Bonnie opened the door. "Finally you deign to show up" were the first words said to me. It had been a year.
Verb
do something that one considers to be below one's dignity
- Synonyms