to do something that one considers beneath one's dignity
► uses
Uses:
“Come, so we shall see all your friends,” he went on, “even Madame Stahl, if she deigns to recognize me.”
Leo Tolstoy. Anna Karenina (1878)
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Has he deigned to add aught of civility to his ordinary style?
Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice (1813)
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The Jew, with characteristic patience, stood humbly on one side, leaning on the knotted staff, his greasy, broad-brimmed hat casting a deep shadow over his grimy face, waiting for the noble Excellency to deign to put some questions to him.
Baroness Emmuska Orczy. The Scarlet Pimpernel
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She does not deign to ask me what it is for.
Margaret Atwood. The Handmaid's Tale (1986)
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She added that Her Majesty had deigned to show Baron Funke beaucoup d’estime, and again her face clouded over with sadness.
Leo Tolstoy. War and Peace: With bonus material from Give War and Peace A Chance by Andrew D. Kaufman
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Ghaznavi didn't even deign to look at the soldiers.
Melania G. Mazzucco. Limbo (Virginia Jewiss translation), p.248 (2014)
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When the tumult had quieted a bit, she began to speak, not deigning to raise her voice, but forcing them to quiet themselves to hear her.
Diana Gabaldon. Outlander (1991)
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Finny got up, patted my head genially, and moved on across the field, not deigning to glance around for my counter-attack,