talk down to
Verb
Meaning
talk down to (third-person singular simple present talks down to, present participle talking down to, simple past and past participle talked down to)
(transitive) To speak to another person in a demeaning or patronizing way.
Synonyms
Examples
I liked her sassy comeback to a lot of the wives of the players who talk down to her because she is only a girlfriend.
And we convey all our information in the same way we write our guidebooks: we don't talk down to our audience, we're never formal and we try to write a sense of fun and enthusiasm into every sentence.
She didn't curse over us, she didn't talk down to us, and she taught us honesty by not doing illegal things like accepting the "hook up."
"But I'm not talking down to you," I said, and then commented that good nonfiction books for children don't talk down to readers, either.
If you fly Cebu Pacific they train their staff to be rude to customers and talk down to them.
Mitchell was trying to talk down to Jane, to suggest that she was being naive for suggesting that Bayh, and not progressives, should back down and accept the public option.