look down one's nose

look down one's nose (third-person singular simple present looks down one's nose, present participle looking down one's nose, simple past and past participle looked down one's nose)

1. (idiomatic, usually followed by at) To regard as inferior or distasteful; to hold in contempt.
   • 1940, Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton, The House of Lee, Kessinger, published 2005, →ISBN, page 98:

     You look too high and mighty; customers would think you were looking down your nose at them.

   • 1952 March 24, “The Press: Fried Crow, à la Mode”, in Time:

     The New York Daily News's Columnist John O'Donnell, a Taftman, looked down his nose at Eisenhower's campaign.

   • 2003, Joy Fielding, Whispers and Lies, →ISBN, page 7:

     [S]he has such a superior look about her, you know, like some snooty society matron, looking down her nose at the rest of us.

• look down on
• turn up one's nose