• IPA: /deɪn/

deign (deigns, present participle deigning; past and past participle deigned)

1. (intransitive) To condescend; to do despite a perceived affront to one's dignity.

   He didn't even deign to give us a nod of the head; he thought us that far beneath him.

2. (transitive) To condescend to give; to do something.
   • c. 1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene ii], page 131 ↗, column 2:

     Nor would we deigne him buriall of his men, / Till he diſburſed, at Saint Colmes inch#Etymology_2|ynch, / Ten thouſand Dollars, to our generall vſe.

3. (obsolete) To esteem worthy; to consider worth notice.
   • circa 1590 William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard and Ed[ward] Blout, plublished 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene i], page 21 ↗, column 1:

     Go, go, be gone, to ſaue your Ship from wrack, / Which cannot periſh hauing thee aboarde, / Being deſtin’d to a drier death on ſhore : / I muſt goe ſend ſome better Meſſenger, / I fear my Iulia would not daigne my lines, / Receiuing them from ſuch a worthleſſe poſt.

• deem
• dignity

• French: daigner, condescendre
• German: sich herablassen (with zu + infinitive), geruhen (with zu + infinitive)
• Portuguese: dignar-se a
• Russian: снизойти́
• Spanish: dignarse