How to Use patronizing in a Sentence
patronizing
adjective-
Because of that context, Manion said the word can come off as patronizing and demeaning.
—Ashley Soebroto, BostonGlobe.com, 6 Apr. 2023
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But for many teens and 20-somethings, a smiley face popping up in a text or email is seen as patronizing or passive-aggressive.
—Aiyana Ishmael, WSJ, 9 Aug. 2021
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Asking us to take a break from that may not be possible and often feels dismissive, tone-deaf or patronizing.
—Rachael McCrary, Forbes, 7 Mar. 2023
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By the end of the file, the vaguely patronizing top-line recommendation against simple summation begins to make more sense.
—The New Yorker, 3 June 2022
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Now mom’s and Giulia’s reassurances sound patronizing and hollow, and more disturbingly, suggest an effort to keep Chiara in the dark.
—Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times, 26 May 2022
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This can feel patronizing, and may incite actual upset from you.
—Tarot Astrologers, Chicago Tribune, 22 Apr. 2023
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And even at its most patronizing, ‘Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris’ provides a generous, gentle stage for her most endearing qualities to shine through.
—Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times, 15 July 2022
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As a rule, European green evangelism comes off as very patronizing.
—Ariel Cohen, Forbes, 23 Jan. 2023
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Perhaps that’s because the cast and crew of the movie-inside-the-movie are all reprehensible, grotesque and spectacularly patronizing.
—Michael Cavna, Washington Post, 17 May 2023
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To act like de Witte’s performance was some kind of wild upset seems a little disingenuous, and a bit patronizing to audiences overall.
—Kat Bein, Billboard, 27 Mar. 2023
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The series’s interior world is so thinly rendered and its patronizing tone so prevailing that the impact is more lecture than thriller.
—Vulture, 4 Feb. 2022
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At dinner, Chloe rolls up looking like Alice Cullen and everyone is very patronizing to her about being scantily clad in a recent photo shoot.
—Leah Marilla Thomas, refinery29.com, 10 May 2021
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Members say the approach backfired, coming across as patronizing and failing to recognize the demands on senior women’s time.
—Katherine Dunn, Fortune, 16 Mar. 2023
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Set to a soundtrack of stereotypical Chinese music, the videos featured a patronizing Mandarin voiceover instructing her how to eat the Italian dishes.
—Megan C. Hills, CNN, 16 June 2021
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Bush, to his limited credit, at least recognized how off-putting such patronizing attitudes could be.
—Casey Michel, The New Republic, 16 Dec. 2022
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The patronizing filmmaking advice Julie receives from the more confident people around her is often painfully apt.
—Lidija Haas, The New Republic, 12 Nov. 2021
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My trepidation was that the streaming show, the brainchild of Ken Daurio and Paul, would be another patronizing lampoon of characters breaking midsentence into song.
—Peter Marks, Washington Post, 26 May 2023
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MoMA promoted Edmondson’s work while also adopting a patronizing attitude toward the artist, who had never been formally trained.
—Nora McGreevy, Smithsonian Magazine, 4 Nov. 2021
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More fundamentally, all this is an enormously patronizing way to think and speak about citizens in an ostensibly self-governing society.
—Nate Hochman, National Review, 7 Feb. 2022
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Luxuriantly bearded Victorians felt deeply proprietorial about nature, and there was much patronizing sneering.
—Mary Jo Dilonardo, Treehugger, 25 May 2023
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'patronizing.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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