deign

While I would never deign to speak for all critics — I’ve been around enough to know I don’t need that smoke — we’re not generally fans of inscrutability.

From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2026

Still, when she does deign to speak, there’s a dynamite scene where she dresses down Julian critically and psychologically.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 9, 2026

Brown and black bears focus on the oily brains and nutritious roe of salmon when the fish are abundant and deign to chow down on whole fish only in years when salmon aren’t plentiful.

From Scientific American ● Apr. 11, 2023

And when she does deign to talk policy, she phones it in.

From Slate ● Feb. 28, 2023

“Maybe if we’re lucky, the general will deign to let us take showers. And, maybe if we’re really lucky, he’ll actually take one himself.”

From "The Darkest Minds" by Alexandra Bracken

Which she already has, along with all the extracurriculars required to prove she will be an asset to whichever university deigns to accept our tens of thousands of dollars in tuition, housing and fees.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 23, 2024

More than that, he also secured a prized meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a head of government who rarely deigns to trouble himself with mere foreign ministers.

From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2024

If the press deigns to show them to us, we’ll see evermore flagrant displays of cognitive decline, and more often.

From Salon ● Mar. 26, 2024

But in “The Power Notebooks,” she deigns to give them a try.

From New York Times ● Feb. 26, 2020

Though Quin Veturius is seventy-seven years old, women blush when he looks them in the eye, and men wince when he deigns to shake their hands.

From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir

That applied to observers who deigned to take photographs of the case's famous players in the courthouse and lawyers who pushed their questions into territory the judge had previously made clear were off-limits.

From BBC ● May 15, 2026

Times were unimportant, however, as the racers who deigned to take to the Stelvio course finetuned their lines down the course in the kind of flat light that is also forecast for Saturday's medal race.

From Barron's ● Feb. 6, 2026

According to the devoted, woe to those who deigned to enjoy any aspects of "Star Trek: Discovery" and previous seasons of "Star Trek: Picard."

From Salon ● Mar. 2, 2023

Chris Pine’s rep deigned to respond to the ‘ridiculous story’ that Harry Styles spit at Pine during ‘Don’t Worry Darling’s’ Venice debut.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2022

“What pretty skirts,” she deigned to say, looking away.

From "Secrets at Sea" by Richard Peck

The love of ambiguity can feel somewhat coy—Ms. Tokarczuk gestures toward the existence of occult mysteries without deigning to fully portray them.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 28, 2025

Before deigning to unveil his characters’ undeveloped souls, Bergman shows us the variety of masks they have been taught to adopt.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2021

He was lucky I was even deigning to speak to him, particularly with people watching.

From Salon ● Sep. 29, 2019

Later, his photography business would employ as many as 50 people, Nadar only deigning to go behind the camera for celebrities and friends.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 19, 2017

He fussed over my condescension in deigning to learn anything about his country.

From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin