Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To lower in character, quality, or value; degrade. See Synonyms at adulterate, corrupt, degrade.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To reduce in quality or state; impair the purity, worth, or credit of; vitiate; adulterate: as, to debase gold or silver by alloy.
- To lower or impair morally; degrade.
- Synonyms Debase, Degrade, etc. (see abase), lower, deteriorate, dishonor, alloy, taint, corrupt, defile. See list under degrade.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To lower in character, quality, or value; to degrade.
- v. transitive To lower the value of (a currency) by reducing the amount of valuable metal in the coins.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To reduce from a higher to a lower state or grade of worth, dignity, purity, station, etc.; to degrade; to lower; to deteriorate; to abase
WordNet 3.0
- v. lower in value by increasing the base-metal content
- v. corrupt morally or by intemperance or sensuality
- v. corrupt, debase, or make impure by adding a foreign or inferior substance; often by replacing valuable ingredients with inferior ones
Etymologies
- de- + base2. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“But now I fain debase myself to all who rail at thee:”
“It should be called a debase rather than a debate.”
“The second reason to debase is to consume the debt.”
“Fixing the currency to a finite standard guarantees that it will be necessary to "debase" to accommodate a growing population, growing demand for money itself.”
“That doesn't mean that I'm trying to "debase" reading by aligning it with "the essentially passive experience of watching television," it just means that I want my time with a book to be well-spent.”
“_Delight_ is naturally formed by the participle _de_ and _light_, to make light, in the same way as "debase," to make base, "defile," to make foul.”
“Y: And who turns away from the religion of Abraham but such as debase their souls with folly?”
“Despite all the worries that quantitative easing will "debase" the greenback, it's still the currency of choice when risk appears.”
“But a Pentagon-supported service group, the Military Order of the Purple Heart, has strongly opposed expanding the definition to include psychological symptoms, saying it would "debase" the honor.”
“She said: "Nudity has always existed in art, and I think that, given the right conditions, it doesn't necessarily 'debase' any more than it celebrates or represents the human body" … … … ….”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘debase’.
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@vcb.etym.prjct - SAT WORD DUMP - as ...
The words on this list SAT regulars that I haven't sorted and grouped yet. It's like my wordy holding pen. get it? holding the pen to write a word? HA! I love how lame my humor is.
iconoclast, glacial, agnostic, histrionic, treacly, contemptuous, captious, bombastic, bombast, perfidy, quiescence, sordid and 148 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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allover
reintegrate, spight, surveillant, harmonize, Colophon, workplace, bigoted, unsighted, bridgework, salutation, voltmeter, octane and 159 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, 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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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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de-
away from; off; down; entirely; undo; reverse
detrain, decline, defunct, defrost, debility, detract, deduce, deduct, delineate, defuse, debunk, debase and 7 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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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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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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GRE
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abhor, abjure, abrasive, abridge, abstain, acme, activism, adhere, admonish and 195 more...
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Words to Learn
colloquium, resilient, ruminate, missive, sylvan, indefatigable, preclude, prowess, quiescent, caustic, verdant, specter and 119 more...
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samuraizack's Words
floccinaucinihili..., pneumonoultramicr..., bombastic, existentialistic, velocipede, aglet, anatomical snuffbox, wonk, tang, funambulist, quakebuttock, flews and 390 more...
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Revised GRE Wordlist_2013
Vocabulary building for my quest of GRE 2013
ephemeral, esoteric, rhetoric, censure, egregious, pittance, dupe, mulct, paucity, alacrity, maintain, laconic and 997 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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Inner B
Words with the letter b within the word, not just as the initial or last letter.
remember, maybe, able, unable, nimble, cable, reusable, thimble, cymbal, capable, tremble, enable and 143 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for debase.
blafferty Nice reference, bilby! Apr 27, 2011
bilby All debase are belong to incubus. Apr 27, 2011
Kristianto2010 The Bible tells us that a rejection of God can actually lead to a more hateful attitude toward Him: “Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind . . . to become haters of God” (Rom. 1:28-30). ODB April 28, 2011.
Apr 27, 2011
rolig Nice, Mediagrey, but I think you mean "the debased direction". "Debase" is a verb, not an adjective. May 17, 2009
nuxiy Very nice, mediagrey :) May 17, 2009
mediagrey As the scorn of society grips every fiber of my confused existence. Me, an ego centric person made possible only through the comfort of a late Modern Industrialism, looks on helplessly at the debase direction that is driving man into the abyss and eventual collapse of society as I know it.
May 17, 2009