Degrade
[dɪ'greɪd] or [dɪ'ɡred]
Definition
(verb.) lower the grade of something; reduce its worth.
(verb.) reduce the level of land, as by erosion.
Inputed by Dan--From WordNet
Definition
(v. t.) To reduce from a higher to a lower rank or degree; to lower in rank; to deprive of office or dignity; to strip of honors; as, to degrade a nobleman, or a general officer.
(v. t.) To reduce in estimation, character, or reputation; to lessen the value of; to lower the physical, moral, or intellectual character of; to debase; to bring shame or contempt upon; to disgrace; as, vice degrades a man.
(v. t.) To reduce in altitude or magnitude, as hills and mountains; to wear down.
(v. i.) To degenerate; to pass from a higher to a lower type of structure; as, a family of plants or animals degrades through this or that genus or group of genera.
Inputed by Cornelia
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. [1]. Disgrace, dishonor, discredit, break, cashier, reduce to inferior rank.[2]. Lower, sink, deteriorate, impair, injure, debase, vitiate, pervert, alloy.
Checked by Gregory
Synonyms and Antonyms
[See DEBASE]
Editor: Sheldon
Definition
v.t. to lower in grade or rank: to deprive of office or dignity: to lower in character value or position: to disgrace.—n. Degradā′tion disgrace: degeneration: abortive structural development: a lowering in dignity.—p.adjs. Degrad′ed reduced in rank: base: low: (her.) placed on steps; Degrad′ing debasing: disgraceful.
Checked by Abram
Examples
- She felt as if a great gulf lay between her caste and his, and that to cross it or meet him half-way would be to degrade herself. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- You wouldn't degrade yourself that way, Emily? Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- The capitalist and aristocrat of England cannot feel that as we do, because they do not mingle with the class they degrade as we do. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- And if so, who would receive gold on condition that he was to degrade the noblest part of himself under the worst? Plato. The Republic.
- If you have any mercy left, don't let me degrade myself in this way! Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- Nothing of that sort can degrade you--you ennoble the occupation of your husband. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- Do not degrade me in my own eyes, she said; poverty has long been my nurse; hard-visaged she is, but honest. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- You would not expect him actually to perform those degrading acts? Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- There is no office too degrading for them to perform, for money. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- A perfect type of the strongly masculine, unmarred by dissipation, or brutal or degrading passions. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- That too is why debating is such a wretched amusement and most partisanship, most controversy, so degrading. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- I felt it would be degrading to faint with hunger on the causeway of a hamlet. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- Almost daily he whetted his keen knife and scraped and whittled at his young beard to eradicate this degrading emblem of apehood. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- We are indebted to that for seeing a woman like Dorothea degrading herself by marrying him. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- Gradually certain stimuli are selected because of their relevancy, and others are degraded. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- We know how human nature may be degraded; we do not know how by artificial means any improvement in the breed can be effected. Plato. The Republic.
- We shall not then be degraded from our true characters. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- The whites could not toil without becoming degraded, and those who did were denominated poor white trash. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- He is beset by sharpers: John is sunk and degraded--his look is frightful--I feel ashamed for him when I see him. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- You have degraded what should have been a course of lectures into a series of tales. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
- Excuse my being a little out of temper; I'm degraded in my own estimation--I have let Rosanna Spearman puzzle me. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- The knowledge it brings you is bought too dear, Monsieur; this coming and going by stealth degrades your own dignity. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- It degrades to stoop; it is glorious to look up. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- Even the fashionable quarters had the air of untidy domesticity to which no excess of heat ever degrades the European cities. Edith Wharton. The Age of Innocence.
Typist: Shelley