de haut en bas
Americanadverb
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from top to bottom; from head to foot.
-
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
She had begun, as we have seen, by treating him de haut en bas.
From The Marriage of William Ashe by Mrs. Humphry Ward
He greeted Ernest rather de haut en bas, that is to say he began by trying to do so, but the affair tailed off unsatisfactorily.
From The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
