abase

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments  · 
“
I am an old man and I have seen what altitudes the want of gold can abase, and what impossible things it makes possible.

View all »
Definitions (5)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. transitive verb To lower in rank, prestige, or esteem. See Synonyms at degrade.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • They made no doubt that such an able statesman as Cardinal Richelieu would seize every opportunity to abase, or at least embarrass the house of Austria, the eternal rival of France. —  The Life of the Truly Eminent and Learned Hugo Grotius
  • “Society here, if I do not now abase the term, stands on a trembling point, beyond which if but little pressed by its enemies, it will be viewed, in its unreclaimable state,” he warned the senator. —  Three Roads to Alamo
  • I am an old man and I have seen what altitudes the want of gold can abase, and what impossible things it makes possible. —  The Maid of Maiden Lane
  • I shall again revisit my native country with honour, and abase the villain who hath soiled my fame! —  The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete
  • Slavery, for example, is abase thing; but a servile mind in a free man is contemptible. —  Aesthetical Essays of Frederich Schiller
More examples »
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 313 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Suggestions Wordniks Suggest

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English abassen, from Old French abaissier : Latin ad-, ad- + Vulgar Latin *bassiāre (from Medieval Latin bassus, low).

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English abesse (Gower), from Old French abaissier, etc. (French abaisser), from Middle Latin abassare, from Latin ad + Middle Latin bassare, lower, from Late Latin bassus, low: see base and bass. The Middle English abasen, abaisen, with its many variants, appears always to have the sense of abash, q. v.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/əˈbeɪs/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word a few times a year.

Recently looked up

threesome · styptic · leica · animadvert · lunge

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

qualms · poofter · oh for heaven's sake · embodies · silence