deign
Part of speech: verb
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: From Middle English deinen, deynen (“to consider (something) suitable to one’s dignity or worth, condescend; to appear worthy; to condescend to grant (something), permit, vouchsafe; to regard (someone) as worthy; to consecrate, dedicate (something)”), from Old French daigner, degnier, deigner, deignier (“to condescend, deign”) (modern French daigner), from Latin dignāre, the present active infinitive of dignō (“to deem fitting, suitable, or worthy; to condescend, deign”), from dignus (“fitting, suitable, worthy; worthy of”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *deḱ- (“to perceive; to take”)) + -ō (suffix forming first-conjugation verbs).
cognates
* Italian degnare
* Occitan deinar, denhar
Inflected forms:
form: deigns
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: deigning
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: deigned
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: deigned
pos: verb
tags: past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: deign
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: deign
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: deigned
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: deign
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: deignest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: deigned
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: deignedst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: deigns
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: deigneth
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: deigned
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: deign
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: deigned
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: deign
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: deigned
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: deign
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: deigning
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: deigned
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
Senses:
gloss: To consider it appropriate or worthy to do or give (something), often when it is seen as beneath one's dignity; to condescend, to vouchsafe.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Nor vvould vve deigne him buriall of his men, / Till he diſburſed, at Saint Colmes ynch, / Ten thouſand Dollars, to our generall vſe.
[T]hough this my vvorke, ovvne not vvorth enough to deſerve your patronage, yet ſuch is your benigne humanity, that I am confident you vvill daigne it your protection, under vvhich it vvillingly ſhrovvdes it ſelfe.
And sure a willing ear she well might deign / To one whose tales may equally engage / The wondering mind of youth, the thoughtful heart of age.
He, who usually hardly deigned a glance at his infants, now lay gazing with inexpressible softness and sadness at the little sleeping face; […]
O LORD, Jesus Christ, who, before ascending into heaven, didst promise to send the Holy Ghost to finish thy work in the souls of thy Apostles and disciples, deign to grant the same Holy Spirit to me, that he may perfect in my soul the work of thy grace and thy love.
gloss: To consider it appropriate or worthy to accept or take (something).
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: Shee deignes not my good will, but doth reprove / And of my rurall muſick holdeth ſcorne.
Go, go, be gone, to ſaue your Ship from vvrack, / VVhich cannot periſh hauing thee aboarde, / Being deſtin’d to a drier death on ſhore: / I muſt goe ſend ſome better Meſſenger, / I fear my Iulia vvould not daigne my lines, / Receiuing them from ſuch a vvorthleſſe poſt.
Thou haſt eſtrang'd thy ſelf, and deigneſt not our land: / Farre off to others novv, thy fauour honour breeds, / And high diſdaine doth cauſe thee ſhun our clime (I feare) […]
[A]t thy heele / Did Famine follovv, […] Thou did'ſt drinke / The ſtale [urine] of Horſes, and the gilded Puddle / VVhich Beaſts vvould cough at. Thy pallat thẽ [then] did daine / The rougheſt Berry, on the rudeſt Hedge.
gloss: Often followed by of: to consider (someone) as worthy of something; to dignify.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: VVill you not daigne his Majeſty vvith an Anſvver?
gloss: To consider it appropriate or worthy to do something, often when it is seen as beneath one's dignity; to condescend, to think fit, to vouchsafe.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: He didn’t even deign to give us a nod of the head; he thought us that far beneath him.
For Edvvard vvill defeind the Tovvne, and thee, / And all thoſe friends, that deine to follovv mee.
My fathers Palace, Madam, vvill be proud / To entertaine your preſence, if youle daine / To make repoſe vvithin.
[…] Samballat gaue his daughter Nicaſo to Manaſſes, the brother of Iaddus the High Prieſt, in the time of Darius the laſt Perſian Monarch. This Nehemia mentioneth, but deigneth not to name him, affirming that he chaſed him from him, of vvhich ſome deſcant vvhether it vvere by exile, or excommunication, or ſome other puniſhment.
Them thus impolid beheld / VVith pittie Heav'ns high King, and to him call'd / Raphael, the ſociable Spirit, that deign'd / To travel vvith Tobias, and ſecur'd / His marriage vvith the ſeaventimes vvedded Maid.
Fame, […] Deſcribes him bold, and fiercely fond of povver, […] Impatient of Command, and hardly daigning / To be controll'd by his Imperious Mother.
O Son [Jesus] of his Love, / VVho deignedſt to die, / Our Curſe to remove, / Our Pardon to buy; […]
The grave and silent peasant whose very dog will hardly deign to bark at you, […]
Cæsar will deign to choose his wine? Sicilian, Lesbian, Chian—
It is about time that Bishop [Thomas Louis] Heylen is coming and deigns to visit us; he has been in Chicago twice, only a few hours from here by train, but he did not come here.
He will deign to finish this simple fare and wash it down with nothing more Lucullan than beer.
Before I could knock, Bonnie opened the door. "Finally you deign to show up" were the first words said to me. It had been a year.
Related words: deem
dignity
spare
suffer
Derived words: dedeign
Translations:
lang: Belarusian
word: удастойваць
roman: udastójvacʹ
lang: Belarusian
word: удастоіць
roman: udastóicʹ
lang: Bulgarian
word: благоволявам
roman: blagovoljavam
lang: Bulgarian
word: снизхождавам
roman: snizhoždavam
lang: Czech
word: uráčit se
lang: Dutch
word: verwaardigen
lang: Finnish
word: alentua
lang: Finnish
word: suvaita
lang: French
word: daigner
lang: French
word: condescendre
lang: Georgian
word: აღირსა
roman: aɣirsa
lang: Georgian
word: იკადრა
roman: iḳadra
lang: Georgian
word: ინება
roman: ineba
lang: Georgian
word: ღირსად ჩათვალა
roman: ɣirsad čatvala
lang: Greek
word: καταδέχομαι
roman: katadéchomai
lang: Hungarian
word: kegyeskedik
lang: Hungarian
word: méltat
lang: Hungarian
word: méltóztat
lang: Hungarian
word: méltóztatik
lang: Italian
word: degnare
lang: Latin
word: digno
lang: Macedonian
word: удо́стои
roman: udóstoi
lang: Macedonian
word: удосто́јува
roman: udostójuva
lang: Macedonian
word: благо́воли
roman: blagóvoli
lang: Macedonian
word: по́вела
roman: póvela
lang: Māori
word: tapatu
lang: Middle English
word: deynen
lang: Polish
word: raczyć
lang: Portuguese
word: dignar-se a
lang: Russian
word: снизойти́
roman: snizojtí
lang: Russian
word: соблаговоли́ть
roman: soblagovolítʹ
lang: Russian
word: соизво́лить
roman: soizvólitʹ
lang: Russian
word: удосто́ить
roman: udostóitʹ
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: удо́стојити
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: udóstojiti
lang: Spanish
word: dignarse
lang: Czech
word: milostivě se uvolit
lang: Czech
word: uráčit se
lang: Finnish
word: suoda