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

And that brings down prices for every airline passenger—whether you deign to fly Spirit or not.

From Slate ● Oct. 15, 2024

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

Ser Mandon did not deign to show that he had heard that.

From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin

His Ray always seems to be hiding behind a motorcycle visor even when he’s not and when he deigns to speak, the words trail off in a huff of exhaustion.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 5, 2026

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

When Peter deigns to show up to the office, it’s to flagrantly show his refusal to work by playing Tetris or gutting a fish at his desk.

From Salon ● Mar. 1, 2024

Finkel’s account, based largely on interviews with Breitwieser, is of a romantic hero who disdains practical details as much as security ones, and who is “crushed” when Stengel deigns to buy Ikea furniture.

From New York Times ● Jun. 24, 2023

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

Nehemia only deigned to give him a terse nod.

From "Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas

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

An interlude satirizing the stultifying fatuousness of the royal mission is followed by one that fawningly celebrates the magnificence of Diana deigning to speak to Welsh well-wishers.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 17, 2021

Those abundant trees – and of all the creatures, deigning somehow to glance at me and the dogs with a corner-of-the-eye curiosity, though, like the cuckoo, they never quite show their eyes, their faces.

From The Guardian ● Jun. 13, 2020

We need not, in the end, thank Hollywood, or American culture, for deigning to reflect some minuscule part of ourselves on TV, nor need we ask for more, or for better.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 18, 2020

She was the queen of the Hollows, and here she was deigning to waste a few of her precious words on me, a kid from Valedale?

From "Burning Blue" by Paul Griffin