deign

From Middle English deignen, borrowed from Old French deignier (“consider worthy”), from Latin dīgnō, dīgnārī (“consider worthy”), from dīgnus (“worthy”). Cognate to dignity and French daigner.

• IPA^(key): /deɪn/
• Rhymes: -eɪn
• Homophones: Dane

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

1. (intransitive) To condescend; to do despite a perceived affront to one's dignity.

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

2. (transitive) To condescend to give; to do something.
   • c. 1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene ii], page 131, column 2:

     Nor would we deigne him buriall of his men, / Till he diſburſed, at Saint Colmes ynch, / Ten thouſand Dollars, to our generall vſe.

   • 1871, Charlotte Mary Yonge, Heartsease, Or, The Brother's Wife, volume 2, page 189:

     He, who usually hardly deigned a glance at his infants, now lay gazing with inexpressible softness and sadness at the little sleeping face […]

3. (obsolete) To esteem worthy; to consider worth notice.
   • c. 1590, William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard and Ed[ward] Blout, plublished 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene i], page 21, column 1:

     Go, go, be gone, to ſaue your Ship from wrack, / Which 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 would not daigne my lines, / Receiuing them from ſuch a worthleſſe poſt.

• deem
• dignity

• condescend
• spare
• suffer

• Edgin, digne, dinge, gnide, nidge