patronize

verb

1. (transitive)To act as a patron of; to defend, protect, or support.

   “A great perſonage aſked lord S——h, how the citizens came to patronize ſuch a profligate as Wilkes. His lordſhip replied, "They would patronize the devil, if he aſſiſted them to pull down a miniſter."”

   “But she is totally devoid of elegant accomplishments, excepting the knowledge of French and Italian, which she acquired from the most grotesque monster you ever beheld, whom my father has engaged as a kind of librarian, and whom he patronizes, I believe, to show his defiance of the world's opinion.”

   “We ask her [the government] to patronize scholars as she does her law makers. We ask her to patronize pioneers in science as she does pioneers in the woods. We ask her to support the officers of colleges as she does the officers of state, her governor, her secretary, and her judges; and then the college hall may be thrown open as it should be to every poor youth in the community free of expense.”

   “I can't go anywhere without being Patronized. I don't want to be Patronized. If I buy a ticket for a Flower Show, or a Music Show, or any sort of Show, and pay pretty heavy for it, why am I to be Patroned and Patronessed as if the Patrons and Patronesses treated me? If there's a good thing to be done, can't it be done on its own merits? [...] I wish somebody would tell me whether other countries get Patronized to anything like the extent of this one!”

   “In those days, as now, the Royal Naval Colleges as well as Sandhurst were well patronised by the squirearchy and the youths of the blue-blood who found in the training there a congenial calling, when they were not satisfied with military training as a hobby. [...] The attraction of military and naval life was enhanced by the fact that the Royal family patronised it.”

2. (transitive)To make oneself a customer of a business, especially a regular customer.

   “"A chearful glaſs, then," ſaid Sir Sedley, "you think horridly intolerable?" [...] "Well, the glaſs is not what I patroniſe," ſaid Sir Theophilus; "it hips me ſo conſumedly the next day; no, I can't patroniſe the glaſs." / "Not patroniſe wine?" cried Lord Newford; "O hang it! O curſe it! that's too bad, Offy![…]"”

   “Mr John Puffingham was a patron—a patron to the diversified layers and strata of men and things pertaining to sublunary matters. He patronised his hatter, who, once a year, smoothed a cheap-and-shabby for his bald and shining brow. He patronised his tailor in the neighbourhood of the Minories. He patronised his washerwoman, his dustman—a pawnbroker he once patronised when an unexpected call was made upon his exhausted exchequer.”

   “In the eveng^([sic]) a party of Artists at Millers where I met Davis who brought in a little sketch from nature, very beautiful. Miller asked me as a favour to buy it of him, which I could not refuse him although it puts me in the aucward^([sic]) position of patronising a man whom I think far too well of to attempt the like with – however it is done.”

   “Hungry New Yorkers, who for nearly four decades have been accustomed to drop nickels in a slot when they patronized a Horn & Hardart restaurant, are in for a surprise when they visit the company's new unit soon to be opened in Fresh Meadows, Queens.”

3. (transitive)To assume a tone of unjustified superiority toward; to talk down to, to treat condescendingly.

   “"Yes, she was inclined to patronise you, I thought." / "I don't think she meant to patronise me in particular, it's the sort of manner that comes to women when they find themselves married, especially if they have had aspirations after that state for some time.[…]"”

   “Of course, [Jack] Nicholson patronises him [co-star Morgan Freeman], much as a hare might a tortoise, except that hares can't arch an eyebrow and smirk.”

4. (obsolete, transitive)To blame, to reproach.