Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To divest (a coin, for example) of monetary value.
  • transitive verb To stop using (a metal) as a monetary standard.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To divest of standard monetary value; withdraw from use as money; deprive of the character of money. Also spelled demonetise.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To deprive of current value; to withdraw from use, as money.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To withdraw the status of legal tender from a coin (etc.) and remove it from circulation.
  • verb To declare ineligible or worthless as a medium of exchange or as legal tender.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb deprive of value for payment

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French démonétiser : dé-, away from (from Old French de-; see de–) + Latin monēta, coin; see money.]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word demonetize.

Examples

  • If you want to preserve precious / scarce resources, you must 'demonetize' them.

    Conceptual Guerilla - Central Command in the War of Ideas 2009

  • I think its sad that the whole thing could have been a great opportunity to take the model of second life, and put a knife into the vampire capitalism that curses second-life, demonetize and thus democratize the platform.

    Well That Was Quick 2008

  • If granted by the United States alone it will demonetize gold and derange all the business transactions of our people.

    Recollections of Forty Years in the House, Senate and Cabinet An Autobiography. John Sherman

  • It was not the intention of the framers of this law to demonetize silver, because they were openly avowed bimetallists, but it limited coinage to silver bought by the government at market price.

    Recollections of Forty Years in the House, Senate and Cabinet An Autobiography. John Sherman

  • In 1895 we heard in Manila that the Government were about to coin Philippine pesos and absolutely demonetize Mexicans as a medium in the Islands.

    The Philippine Islands John Foreman

  • Oh, nonsense! it is impossible to demonetize gold, because the civilized world recognizes it as an invariable standard by which all commodities are measured in value.

    If Not Silver, What? John W. Bookwalter

  • To ask more seems to me unreasonable, and, if yielded to, will bring all our money to the single silver standard alone, demonetize gold and detach the United States from the standards of the great commercial nations of the world.

    Recollections of Forty Years in the House, Senate and Cabinet An Autobiography. John Sherman

  • If you think government cannot add value to a metal, consider this conundrum: What would be the present value of gold if all nations should demonetize it?

    If Not Silver, What? John W. Bookwalter

  • We can demonetize gold ... the government can refuse to buy any more.

    Prince Hagen Upton Sinclair 1923

  • When Congress met in December, 1889, there was a strong desire in both Houses to utilize silver as legal tender money under conditions that would not demonetize gold.

    On "The Crime of 1873" 1906

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.