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
He was aristocrat by conviction as well as birth, and if he espoused a popular cause it was de haut en bas.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 "Bulgaria" to "Calgary" by Various
He had learned by experience that it did not answer to treat Mrs. Dobbs de haut en bas.
From That Unfortunate Marriage, Vol. 3 by Trollope, Frances Eleanor
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.
