look down on

verb looks down on · looking down on · looked down on · look down upon

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.

   Similar: disesteem, disdain, look down one's nose, contemn, despect, disrespect, despise, look down on, misrespect, scorn, spurn · Opposite: look up to, respect, esteem, honor, idolize, lay store by, prize, hallow, put store by, put store in, rate, regard

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.
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.