de haut en bas
Americanadverb
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from top to bottom; from head to foot.
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in a haughty, disdainful manner; condescendingly.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Condorcet’s condescension—his de haut en bas economics—has had a long shelf life.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 7, 2025
The trust has been overshadowed by his urge to interfere in politics, to slag off doctors and architects and to provide, in some less definable, though reliably nonsensical, way, de haut en bas spiritual instruction.
From The Guardian • Dec. 30, 2017
Some regard him with de haut en bas disdain.
From Salon • Aug. 12, 2012
Well, now," said Evans, "don't you think it your duty to help people realise that they can't regard such transactions de haut en bas, if they happen to have taken part in them?
From The Minister's Charge by Howells, William Dean
He had been prepared to lash rudeness or sullenness, to accept, de haut en bas, shamed contrition.
From Helmet of Navarre by Runkle, Bertha
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
