deign

They also each serve the same purpose: to keep the public distant, confused, and grateful for whatever miserly scraps of information the justices deign to release to us.

From Slate ● Jul. 2, 2026

She is completely in a pantheon that I could only deign to touch.

From Salon ● Oct. 17, 2025

No, they’re hardworking people, others maintained, who’ve come for jobs no American would deign to do.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 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

I didn’t deign to reply, merely nodded once, sharply.

From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss

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

Beginning the documentary's in the thick of that wreckage establishes its slant, which you can be certain Musk will point out if he deigns to comment on it at all.

From Salon ● May 20, 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

Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh have all issued rebukes to lower courts that deigned to question their reasoning.

From Salon ● Oct. 14, 2025

Readers might assume there were only the two the article deigned to mention.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 4, 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

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

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