look down on

1. Also, look down one's nose at. Regard with contempt or condescension, consider oneself superior to. For example, When it comes to baking, Beth is a purist—she looks down on anyone who uses a mix, or Seniors have a way of looking down their noses at juniors. The first expression dates from about 1700, the second from about 1900.

Example Sentences

But I treated all my schoolmates the same; I didn’t look down on kids who didn’t know as much as I did.

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“The local gangs looked down on me and called me sissy,” Thomas said.

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The portrait of Finley’s wife, Cameron Washington, was perched in the southwest corner, looking down on the space like a kind of patron saint of all the portraits, over a dozen total.

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Being so focused on industry means for a long time “they kind of looked down on tourism,” he said.

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Funny side characters—the enlightened mom who looks down on people who use diapers; the chatty wife who will not stop talking about her husband’s vasectomy—fill out a believable cast.

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