| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| degrade |
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| SYLLABICATION: | de·grade |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  d -gr d |
| VERB: | Inflected forms: de·grad·ed, de·grad·ing, de·grades
| | TRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To reduce in grade, rank, or status; demote. 2. To lower in dignity; dishonor or disgrace: a scandal that degraded the participants. 3. To lower in moral or intellectual character; debase. 4. To reduce in worth or value: degrade a currency. 5. To impair in physical structure or function. 6. Geology To lower or wear by erosion or weathering. 7. To cause (an organic compound) to undergo degradation. | | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To fall below a normal state; deteriorate. 2. To undergo degradation; decompose: a chemical that degrades rapidly. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English degraden, from Old French degrader, from Late Latin d gradre : Latin d-, de- + Latin gradus, step; see ghredh- in Appendix I. | | OTHER FORMS: | de·grader —NOUN
| | SYNONYMS: | degrade, abase, debase, demean2, humble, humiliate These verbs mean to deprive of self-esteem or self-worth. Degrade implies reduction to a state of shame or disgrace: “If I pitied you for crying … you should spurn such pity…. Rise, and don't degrade yourself into an abject reptile!” (Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights 1847.) Abase refers principally to loss of rank or prestige: “Meg pardoned him, and Mrs. March's grave face relaxed . . . when she heard him declare that he would … abase himself like a worm before the injured damsel” (Louisa May Alcott, 1869 Little Women.) Debase implies reduction in quality or value: “debasing the moral currency” (George Eliot). Demean suggests lowering in social position: “It puts him where he can make the advances without demeaning himself” (William Dean Howells). Humble can refer to lowering in rank or, more often, to reducing in pride: dreamed of humbling his opponent. To humiliate is to subject to loss of self-respect or dignity: a defeat that humiliated both army and nation. See also synonyms at demote.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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