de haut en bas

[ duh oh tahn bah ]

adverb

, French.

1. from top to bottom; from head to foot.
2. in a haughty, disdainful manner; condescendingly.

Example Sentences

The trust has been overshadowed by his urge to interfere in politics, to slag off doctors and architects and to provide, in some less definable, though reliably nonsensical, way, de haut en bas spiritual instruction.

From The Guardian

There is also a serious risk that Cameron could seem to be behaving de haut en bas: the smooth and ruddy-cheeked squire, gazing down with a courteous smile upon the callow upstart at the cottage door.

From The New Yorker

With quite a terrific de haut en bas swipe, she wrote off this culture secretary – and indeed most of her predecessors – as a political minnow, unworthy of her attention.

From The Guardian

Lloyd HughesWelshpool, Powys • There has always been a whiff of de haut en bas elitism around those who are happy to allow a referendum to settle the constitutional relationship between Scotland and the rest of the UK but who oppose a referendum to settle the constitutional relationship between the UK and the EU.

From The Guardian

Some regard him with de haut en bas disdain.

From Salon