WeChat is the best riposte to the condescending, widely held belief that Chinese internet firms are merely imitators of Western ones, and cannot innovate themselves.
人们普遍认为，中国互联网公司仅仅是西方公司的模仿者，自己则无法创新。对于这种傲慢的观点，微信无疑是最好的回击。
——《经济学人》
Public discourse about the North in most of our enlightened world is crippled, condescending, irrelevant, and, like heartburn, episodic.
文明世界里对朝鲜的公共讨论，大部分都是有缺陷的、居高临下的、不切题的，还像烧心一样是阵发性的。
——《纽约时报》

基本释义

[verb] show feelings of superiority; be patronizing
[动词] 表现出优越感；自认为高人一等


深入解读

Condescend 一词源自拉丁语 condescendere （顺从的），14世纪中期进入英语后原指上帝、国王等对人的弱点“给予极大的宽容”，到了14世纪后期发展为“恭顺地屈服”，不过这些含义现已不再流行。而是到了15世纪初， condescend 开始发展出现在的主要含义“俯就、屈尊”，即自愿放弃自己的优越地位或与地位相称的礼仪或尊严，与下级平等，比如：

我不知道特朗普是否会屈尊造访我们？
I wonder if Trump will condescend to visit us?
顽固的导演放下架子接受舞台工作人员的意见。
The obdurate director condescended to take advice from the stagehand.

这个本是象征着亲切和礼貌的概念，往往更多的用作贬义进行讽刺，即形容某人自视甚高，自以为自己高人一等地去屈尊和俯就，比如：

他赏脸开腔后，半个小时内就有三四次说话自相矛盾。他一字一顿，听上去很生硬。
When he condescended to speak, he contradicted himself three or four times in the space of half an hour. His voice was harsh as he enunciated each word carefully.
我们等了几乎一小时他才屈尊大驾来见我们。他徐缓从容的声音和举止表明他出身贵族。
We had to wait almost an hour before he condescended to see us. His languid voice and manner suggested an aristocratic pedigree.

相比主动善意的俯就，这种假意屈尊明显是“带有优越感地表示关心”或者说“以恩赐态度相待”，这也可以用动词短语 condescend to sb 来表示“对某人表现出高人一等的姿态、带有优越感地对待某人”，比如：

别在我面前摆架子。也别自吹自擂了。
Don't condescend to me. And stop blowing your own trumpet.
他的脾气十分暴躁，别人很难与他相处。但他解释情况时不会对听众表现出高人一等的样子。
He had a volatile temper and couldn't have been easy to live with. But he explained things without condescending to his audience.

而 condescend 的衍生词 condescending 自然相应表示“俯就的、屈尊的”以及“表现出优越感的、抱恩赐态度的、居高临下的”。

名著用例
But her self-control was severely tested many times, because of the personal questions they asked and because of the smug and condescending attitude they displayed toward all things Southern.
不过她的自我克制能力多次受到严峻考验，因为她们经常提出种种涉及私人的问题，而且对南方的一切都表现出一种洋洋自得和好意屈就的态度。
出自美国作家玛格丽特·米切尔（Margaret Mitchell）创作的长篇小说《飘》（Gone with the Wind）。该小说在1937年获得普利策奖，是玛格丽特·米切尔在世时出版的唯一一部作品。不但它成为美国史上最为畅销的小说之一，而且由这部小说所改编的同名电影《乱世佳人》也成为影史上不朽的经典。

同近义词

patronize: treat in a way that is apparently kind or helpful but that betrays a feeling of superiority
deign: do something that one considers to be beneath one's dignity
stoop: lower one's moral standards so far as to do something reprehensible