Patronize vs Prefer - What's the difference?
patronize | prefer | Related terms |
To make a patron.
To assume a tone of unjustified superiority; to talk down to; to treat condescendingly.
To make oneself a customer of a business, especially a regular customer.
*, II.3.2:
*:Tiberius preferred many to honours in his time, because they were famous whoremasters and sturdy drinkers.
(lb) To be in the habit of choosing something rather than something else; to favor; to like better.
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*:"My tastes," he said, still smiling, "incline me to the garishly sunlit side of this planet." And, to tease her and arouse her to combat: "I prefer a farandole to a nocturne; I'd rather have a painting than an etching; Mr. Whistler bores me with his monochromatic mud; I don't like dull colours, dull sounds, dull intellects;."
(lb) To present or submit (something) to an authority (now usually in "to prefer charges").
*1630 , , True Travels , in Kupperman 1988, p.36:
*:one Master David Hume, who making some use of his purse, gave him Letters to his friends in Scotland to preferre him to King James.
*1817 , (Walter Scott), , XVII:
*:Such were the arguments which my will boldly preferred to my conscience, as coin which ought to be current, and which conscience, like a grumbling shopkeeper, was contented to accept.
prefer'' + noun + ''to'' (or ''over'') + noun. Example: ''I prefer coffee to tea .
* prefer'' + gerund + ''to'' (or ''over'') + gerund. Example: ''I prefer skiing to swimming .
* prefer'' + full infinitive + ''rather than'' + bare infinitive. Example: ''I prefer to eat fish rather than (eat) meat .