look down on

present singular third person looks down on · participle present looking down on · participle past looked down on · past looked down on · alternative look down upon

1. idiomatictransitiveTo regard or treat as inferior.

   He remembers feeling that people looked down on him, and, ‘realising I was rubbish at academic stuff’, he decided he'd join a circus.

   2009 September 25, Michael Deacon, “Ross Noble: interview”, in Telegraph.co.uk

   Synonyms: disesteem, disdain, look down one's nose, contemn, despect, disrespect, despise, disdain · Antonyms: look up to, respect, esteem, honor, idolize, lay store by, look up to, prize

2. transitiveTo view from a vantage point.

   High up on the viaduct, and approached by a spidery staircase from the street, it looks down on Southwark Cathedral.

   1948 March and April, “A Keypoint in an Intensive Service”, in Railway Magazine, page 115

3. idiomatictransitiveTo view [people or events on Earth] from the vantage point of the afterlife (originally, Heaven).

   I get a feeling Kurt Cobain is looking down on Nickelback and wondering what alternative rock has become.