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Context: I'm an academic, and I often apply for grants in my home country. Its a tedious work, and the application has to prove that I am capable to finish the project I propose, not only at scientific level, but at management and accounting level. After passing successfully the evaluation process, a whole different process starts. It consists in you interacting with the grant agency. The grant agency assigns you a manager who makes sure your paperwork is in order. She (it's usually a she) has a very short fuse and seems hell bent on making your life miserable. To use a metaphor, it feels like you are a famished beggar and when you beg someone for food, they throw a half eaten chicken wing on the floor and then they tell you vanish because you're disgusting. In my case, the chicken wing is my slashed budget.

So, what would be a proper idiom, or expression to describe the process by which someone answers a request in a most humiliating, condescending manner?

user3653831
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2 Answers2

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Part of your question sounds like you are talking about (making somebody) jump through hoops:

the Cambridge English Dictionary:

    to do a lot of difficult things before you are allowed to have or do something you want

Macmillan Dictionary:

    to perform a series of difficult tests to show that you are suitable for something
    There are so many hoops to jump through that a lot of people give up.

Oxford English Dictionaries:

    Go through an elaborate or complicated procedure in order to achieve an objective.
    ‘the banks make you beg for a loan and they make you jump through hoops to get it’

Merriam-Webster:

    to do a complicated or annoying series of things in order to get or achieve something
    • We had to jump through a lot of hoops to get a loan from the bank.
    • It shouldn’t be necessary to jump through hoops to get a computer to work properly.
Scott - Слава Україні
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patronizing: to adopt an air of condescension toward : treat haughtily or coolly Merriam

and one, example 21 types of bosses The Patronizing Boss:

The patronizing boss is an old-school martyr. Didn’t you know? - he built the company from the ground up! In fact, he made the chair you’re sitting in. You, as an underling, need his holiness’s guidance to see you through the most mundane and simple of tasks. His help, however, always leads to – you guessed it - trouble. How to deal with the King of Condescension? Try a little deflation. Ask him how is it that someone as knowledgeable and talented as him is working for this little company.

lbf
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