degrade
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to lower in dignity or estimation; bring into contempt.
He felt they were degrading him by making him report to the supervisor.
- Antonyms:
- exalt
-
to lower in character or quality; debase.
- Antonyms:
- exalt
-
to reduce (someone) to a lower rank, degree, etc.; deprive of office, rank, status, or title, especially as a punishment.
degraded from director to assistant director.
- Antonyms:
- promote
-
to reduce in amount, strength, intensity, etc.
-
Physical Geography. to wear down by erosion, as hills.
-
Chemistry. to break down (a compound, especially an organic hydrocarbon).
verb (used without object)
-
to become degraded; weaken or worsen; deteriorate.
-
Chemistry. (especially of an organic hydrocarbon compound) to break down or decompose.
verb
-
(tr) to reduce in worth, character, etc; disgrace; dishonour
-
(tr) to reduce in rank, status, or degree; remove from office; demote
-
(tr) to reduce in strength, quality, intensity, etc
-
to reduce or be reduced by erosion or down-cutting, as a land surface or bed of a river Compare aggrade
-
chem to decompose or be decomposed into atoms or smaller molecules
Related Words
See humble.
Other Word Forms
- degrader noun
Etymology
Origin of degrade
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English degraden, from Late Latin dēgradāre, from Latin dē- de- + grad(us) “step, rank, progress” ( grade ) + -āre, infinitive verb suffix
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
They are persistent pollutants, meaning they don't degrade easily and instead build up in the environment.
From BBC
Debating whether the England or South Africa loss was more degrading for Welsh rugby seems futile.
From BBC
This facilitates a process called autophagy, which occurs routinely in our cells: Damaged or unnecessary proteins are wrapped up in small membrane vesicles and safely degraded with enzymes - a natural recycling process, in effect.
From Science Daily
On top of a degraded infrastructure, it would have to contend with a shrunken military and new threats such as drones.
Amazon recently sued Perplexity to prevent it from allowing its agent to make Amazon purchases for users, alleging that its AI agent had “degraded Amazon customers’ experience” and presented a cybersecurity risk to client data.
From Barron's
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
