look down on

Verb

look down on (third-person singular simple present looks down on, present participle looking down on, simple past and past participle looked down on)

1. (idiomatic, transitive) To 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, misrespect, scorn, spurn

   Antonyms:

   look up to, respect, esteem, honor, idolize, lay store by, prize, hallow, put store by, put store in

2. (transitive) To 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. (idiomatic, transitive) To 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.