4 uses
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Definition
treat in a manner that demonstrates a sense of superiority, but is supposed to seem kind
or:
the actions of a patron (to support someone or something; or to be a customer)
or:
the actions of a patron (to support someone or something; or to be a customer)
- Himself, he patronized the glittering Pompeian Barber Shop in the Hotel Thornleigh, and every time he passed the Reeves shop—ten times a day, a hundred times—he felt untrue to his own village.Chapter 3 (66% in)
- They called him "Old Georgie" and shouted, "Come on now, sport; shake a leg" .... boys in belted coats, pimply boys, as young as Ted and as flabby as chorus-men, but powerful to dance and to mind the phonograph and smoke cigarettes and patronize Tanis.Chapter 29 (30% in)
- Incredulously he remembered that he had by his roaring familiarity with them laid himself open to the patronizing of youths whom he would have kicked out of his office; that by dancing too ardently he had exposed himself to rebukes from the rattiest of withering women.Chapter 29 (61% in)
- His wife was awake, her face sallow and lifeless in the morning light, but now he did not compare her with Tanis; she was not merely A Woman, to be contrasted with other women, but his own self, and though he might criticize her and nag her, it was only as he might criticize and nag himself, interestedly, unpatronizingly, without the expectation of changing—or any real desire to change—the eternal essence.Chapter 33 (30% in)
There are no more uses of "patronize" in Babbitt.
Typical Usage
(best examples)