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

I did, although God knows Lacey Pemberton would never deign to have me over.

From "Paper Towns" by John Green

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

The comedian has become a hilarious and refreshingly theatrical presence whenever he deigns to visit the "Weekend Update" desk, and when he breaks out the costumes, you know it's going to be good.

From Salon ● Apr. 9, 2023

It’s one of two cuts on “Honestly, Nevermind” where he deigns to rap, and it captures all his current interests, which apparently include skulking around DTLA’s after-hours raves.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 22, 2022

Zorach’s sensitively rendered mother gazes toward her counterpart with an expression of concern, while the goddess, regally flicking a cape behind her nude body, deigns to look at no one.

From New York Times ● Jan. 20, 2022

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

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

Until this spring, no bird had deigned to nest in the Chalet.

From Washington Post ● May 30, 2022

She stood at the desk a long time before the librarian deigned to attend to her.

From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith

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

The “communications” office specializes in stonewalling, often not even deigning to issue a “no comment.”

From Washington Post ● Jan. 2, 2019

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

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