Your ShelfYour Projects
Webster's Dictionary (1865)

2 entries under this word

Degrade

De-grāde', v. t.

verbtransitive

[imp. & p. p. DEGRADED; p. pr. & vb. n. DEGRADING.] [L. Lat. degradare, from Lat. de and gradus, a step, a degree, from gradi, to step, walk, go; Fr. dégrader, Pr., Sp., & Pg. degradar, It. degradare. Cf. GRADE.]

Sense 1. To reduce from a higher to a lower rank or degree; to deprive of any office or dignity; to strip of honors; as, to degrade a nobleman, or a general officer.

Prynne was sentenced by the Star Chamber Court to be degraded from the bar. Palfrey.

Sense 2. To reduce in estimation, character, or reputation; to lessen the value of; to lower; to debase; to bring shame or contempt upon; as, vice degrades a man.

O, miserable man! to what fall Degraded! to what wretched state reserved! Milton.

Her pride ... struggled hard against this degrading passion. Macaulay.

Sense 3. (Geol.) To reduce in altitude or magnitude, as hills and mountains; to wear down.

Synonyms—To abase; demean; lower; reduce. See ABASE and DEMEAN.

De-grāde', v. i.

verbintransitive

v. i. (Nat. Hist.) To present degraded forms; to exhibit a degradation of a type or structure; as, a family of plants or animals degrades through this or that genus or group of genera. Dana.