Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To lower in rank, prestige, or esteem. See Synonyms at degrade.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To lower or depress, as a thing; bring down.
- To reduce or lower, as in rank, estimation, office, and the like; depress; humble; degrade. Synonyms Abase, Debase, Degrade, Humiliate, Humble, Disgrace, depress, bring low, dishonor, cast down. Abase, to bring down in feelings or condition; it is less often used than humiliate or humble. Debase, to lower morally or in quality: as, a debased nature; debased coinage. Degrade, literally, to bring down a step, to lower in rank, often used as an official or military term, but figuratively used of lowering morally: as, intemperance degrades its victims; a degrading employment. Humiliate, to reduce in the estimation of one's self or of others; it includes abasement of feeling or loss of self-respect. Humble, to abase, generally without ignominy; induce humility in; reflexively, to become humble, restrain one's pride, act humbly. Disgrace, literally, to put out of favor, but always with ignominy; bring shame upon.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. Archaic To lower or depress; to throw or cast down.
- v. To cast down or reduce low or lower, as in rank, office, condition in life, or estimation of worthiness; to depress; to humble; to degrade.
WordNet 3.0
- v. cause to feel shame; hurt the pride of
Etymologies
- Middle English abassen, from Old French abaissier : Latin ad-, ad- + Vulgar Latin *bassiāre (from Medieval Latin bassus, low). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Coleridge was evidently one of those people who abase themselves excessively in the hope of never having to hear their faults expressed on the lips of others.”
“What would possess anyone to take such blessings and abase them with dollar signs?”
“Where the people are Catholic and submissive to the law of God, as declared and applied by the vicar of Christ and supreme pastor of the church, democracy may be a good form of government; but combined with Protestantism or infidelity in the people, its inevitable tendency is to lower the standard of morality, to enfeeble intellect, to abase character, and to retard civilization, as even our short American experience amply proves.”
“The human spirit is fashioned in the likeness of the Creator: it is improper to abase that spirit to some other component of the Creation.”
“In return for their financial support I will promise never, ever to take tea with the Dalai Lama, to stop complaining about their currency manipulation, and to abase myself in any other way they deem appropriate.”
The Wall Street Journal: Europe's Not-So-Cunning Rescue Plan
“Next week, the odds are that she will have to abase herself before the conservative and relatively euro-skeptic wing of her own party if, as seems likely, the Christian Democrats lose control of the conservative citadel of Baden-Württemberg.”
The Wall Street Journal: Euro Zone Letting Slip a Grand Chance
“Lewis has now been forced to abase himself in front of the world's media, and apologise for lying.”
“Asking her to humiliate and abase herself before colleagues is a contravention of her basic human rights.”
The Guardian: Want to get ex-offenders into work? Scrap criminal records
“Nothing else could explain the zeal with which the U.S. cancelled the visas of Honduran judges and congressmen, all duly appointed or elected before the supposed "coup," for the sin of interpreting their own law in a manner that displeased the Obama administration and hindered the administration's efforts to abase itself to Hugo Ch vez.”
The Wall Street Journal: Honduras's Removal of Manuel Zelaya Was No Coup
“They see me in the doorway; the steward of her chamber bellows, “Lady Margaret Stanley!” in an accent no one living south of Hull could understand, the women shuffle aside, so that I can walk towards her, and I step in and go down to my knees, abase myself to yet another usurper, and hold up my hands in the gesture of fealty.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘abase’.
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important
shamanism, consol, sanguine, iffy, affinity, concatenation, honed, innumberable, aiden, inexorable, vet, suss and 176 more...
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Iaan
dirigisme, dystopia, cacotopia, ex ante, veritable, indefatigable, curmudgeon, desultory, antediluvian, transmogrify, pendent, elongate and 269 more...
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Familiar
Just a list of words
fulminate, unctuous, malediction, lumpenproletariat, descry, surfeit, sententious, supernumerary, unabashed, picayune, obliterate, decry and 112 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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my fab list
blowsabella, aperçu, froideur, salubrious, abject, gallipot, mumchance, wainscot, virago, macerate, lascivious, clandestine and 181 more...
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GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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SAT Words
But only the ones that I don't already know.
abase, abash, abominate, abstruse, acclivity, accolade, accost, adroit, adulate, adulterate, adumbrate, affray and 241 more...
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(1st_wk_150)-Dec_5_2012
voracious, indiscriminate, eminent, steeped, replete, abound, technology, prognosticate, automaton, matron, paradox, realm and 297 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2053 more...
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A to abominator (Chambers)
aa gets over 40 hits
aardvark 49 hits
abbatoir 103 hits
abjure 138 hitsA, A-line, A-list, A-lister, A 1, A-road, A-side, from A to B, from A to Z, A-bomb, A-effect, A level and 254 more...
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gre words
convoluted, deride, melancholy, antagonize, antagonize, deference, portentous, prodigious, ruminate, ineffable, turgid, mossy and 58 more...
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man gre
abase, abeyance, abreast, abscission, abscond, abyss, accede, accretion, acerbic, acidulous, acumen, adulterate and 483 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1901 more...
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5000 FREE SAT Words
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 229 more...
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SAT Words
But only the ones that I don't already know.
abase, abash, abominate, abstruse, acclivity, accolade, accost, adroit, adulate, adulterate, adumbrate, affray and 241 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for abase.

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