Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To condemn openly.
- v. To depreciate (currency, for example) by official proclamation or by rumor.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To cry down; speak disparagingly of; censure as faulty or worthless; clamor against: as, to decry a poem.
- To deprive of credit officially.
- Synonyms Decry, Depreciate, Detract from, Derogate from, Disparage, run down, discredit. These words agree in expressing an effort to lower the esteem in which a person or thing is held. If the effort is unjust, the injustice is not so conspicuous as in the words compared under asperse. Decry, to cry down, clamor against, implies activity and publicity; it is hardly applicable to persons. Depreciate, primarily to lower the value of, is less forcible than decry, and may apply to persons. Detract from and derogate from have almost precisely the same meaning—to take from or diminish repute, as by caviling, ascribing success to accident, good conduct to low motives, etc. Disparage, to make a thing unequal to what it was in repute; under-rate. The last four need not have a personal subject: as, it would derogate very much from his standing; it would disparage him in public estimation if it were known.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To cry down; to censure as faulty, mean, or worthless; to clamor against; to blame clamorously; to discredit; to disparage.
WordNet 3.0
- v. express strong disapproval of
Etymologies
- From Old French descrier ("to shout"), from des- + crier ("to cry"); see cry. (Wiktionary)
- French décrier, from Old French descrier : des-, de- + crier, to cry; see cry. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“But the continuing illegal flow of people into this country, which so many conservatives decry, is a product of those mechanisms.”
Concerns About the Immigration Bill, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“That is because heavy majorities of the voters support the various exercises of Presidential power which you decry from the NSA spying program to the MSA.”
“The calls decry high gasoline prices, linking them to Democratic opposition to expanded oil exploration and gasoline-tax cuts.”
“In fact, the spending of President Obama’s that you decry is actually about the only thing standing between this nation and a second Great Depression.”
“Centrist groups like Third Way and No Labels decry the extreme partisanship and call for a new consensus to deal with the crisis.”
“DOBBS: We heard his attorney, Mark Geragos, in absolute, emphatic, emotional terms decry these charges and protest his client's innocence.”
“Often, such terms decry the density of Gaza (the area, not its terrorist leaders).”
“I'm not sure what Harpootlian means by "decry," but Hillary had said herself that Johnson went over the line.”
Bill: Reporters Who Dwell On Racial Dust-Ups Are "Determined To Take Election Away" From The People
“Ms. WILTZ: I think he courted the controversy, at the same time he would kind of decry it and, you know, he tried to have it both ways, I think.”
“Amongst the southern Slavs the evil eye acts by bringing evil spirits into action as the agents, and they "decry" the person or thing.”
Folkways A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘decry’.
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Familiar
Just a list of words
fulminate, unctuous, malediction, lumpenproletariat, descry, surfeit, sententious, supernumerary, unabashed, picayune, obliterate, decry and 122 more...
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Words
phantasmagoria, eviscerate, avast, simulacrum, varicose, oblique, gestalt, ersatz, vernal, vivace, stellate, synecdoche and 330 more...
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EN-HU - important words for a HU inte...
Words only (I left out the expressions) from Geza Kerenyi's EN-HU interpreters' dictionary. Most of them pose some difficulty when interpreted between HU and EN in either or both directions.
abalone, abrasive, abstractionist, abstruse, abysmal, academia, accessibility, accessible, acclimate, accolade, accompanist, achiever and 1469 more...
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GRE
droll, dyspeptic, ebullient, ardor, edify, efficacy, malinger, mannered, martinet, maudlin, mendacious, mendicant and 102 more...
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Censure (v.)
Someone must have had an inferiority complex.
vituperate, vilify, trounce, traduce, slander, scold, revile, reprove, reprimand, reprehend, remonstrate, rebuke and 37 more...
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Letter to a Christian Nation
Vocab. from "Letter to a Christian Nation" by Sam Harris
impart, pretension, divisive, retrograde, bellicose, languish, parse, corroborate, anesthetize, graven, iota, apostate and 107 more...
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Citicize/Criticism
belittle, berate, calumny, castigate, decry, defamation, disparage, excoriate, gainsay, harangue, impugn, inveigh and 9 more...
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capitalcreative's Words
deviltry, visceral, cassanova, assuage, genesis, hot minute, osmosis, wistful, sublime, loathe, farfetched, newfangled and 283 more...
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SAT words
abase, abate, abet, abject, abjure, abrogate, abscond, abstruse, accolade, accommodating, accost, accretion and 202 more...
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Words To Use In Creative Writing
hag-ridden, light-heeled, wendigo, longshanks, fatuous, insipid, sodden, bulging, sycophantic, uncourtly, gauche, assuasive and 174 more...
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generationnext's Words
petulant, vehement, pensive, lascivious, vacillate, histrionic, satiated, svelte, lithe, zeitgeist, viscous, sommelier and 526 more...
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My preparation
for GRE ofcourse
exonerate, incipient, disparate, morbid, engross, ebullient, predilection, propensity, allure, qualms, chastise, perpetuate and 111 more...
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GRE Words
abjure, unswear, state, rescission, indemnification, ab, reny, abnegate, vitiated, vitiate, adumbrated, abash and 378 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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WL_2
repulsion, loath, repugnant, despicable, odious, abhorrence, execrable, detestable, scurvy, animosity, rancor, insurgent and 83 more...
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wasserperson's Words
kakistocracy, telebomb, adroit, pensive, verbatim, asinine, anarchic, didactic, subsequent, mirthful, gregarious, sybarite and 102 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for decry.

ruzuzu The Century's synonyms are interesting--I don't think I've ever heard derogate from. Feb 29, 2012