LOOK DOWN ON

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does look down on mean? 

• LOOK DOWN ON (verb)
  The verb LOOK DOWN ON has 1 sense:

1. regard with contempt

  Familiarity information: LOOK DOWN ON used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LOOK DOWN ON (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Regard with contempt

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Context example:

the new neighbor looks down on us because our house is very modest

Hypernyms (to "look down on" is one way to...):

contemn; despise; disdain; scorn (look down on with disdain)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Antonym:

admire (feel admiration for)

 Context examples 

Look down on a poor soul in worse than mortal peril; and in mercy pity those to whom she is dear!

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I look down on the line of boys below me, with a condescending interest in such of them as bring to my mind the boy I was myself, when I first came there.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Emma could not like what bordered on a reflection on Mr. Weston, and had half a mind to take it up; but she struggled, and let it pass. She would keep the peace if possible; and there was something honourable and valuable in the strong domestic habits, the all-sufficiency of home to himself, whence resulted her brother's disposition to look down on the common rate of social intercourse, and those to whom it was important.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

From my seat I could look down on Thornfield: the grey and battlemented hall was the principal object in the vale below me; its woods and dark rookery rose against the west. I lingered till the sun went down amongst the trees, and sank crimson and clear behind them.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)