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  1. denigrate love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To attack the character or reputation of; speak ill of; defame.
  2. v. To disparage; belittle: The critics have denigrated our efforts.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To blacken; make black.
  2. Blackened; turned black.

Wiktionary

  1. v. transitive To criticise so as to besmirch; traduce, disparage or defame.
  2. v. transitive To treat as worthless; belittle, degrade or disparage.
  3. v. rare To blacken.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. To blacken thoroughly; to make very black.
  2. v. rare Fig.: To blacken or sully; to defame.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. charge falsely or with malicious intent; attack the good name and reputation of someone
  2. v. cause to seem less serious; play down

Etymologies

  1. From Latin dēnigrātus, the past participle of dēnigrāre ("to blacken"), from dē + nigrare 'to blacken (from niger ("black")) (Wiktionary)
  2. Latin dēnigrāre, dēnigrāt-, to blacken, defame : dē-, de- + niger, nigr-, black. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “BTW, what the heck does my being black have to do with use of the word denigrate, when that word describes what I mean to say?”

    Firedoglake » It’s Bill Clinton’s Fault

  • “In Venezuela, it is illegal to publish news accountsthat might be deemed to "denigrate" President Hugo Ch vez.”

    The Wall Street Journal: Argentina Moves to Seize Newsprint Firm

  • “I often do that ... but please quote where I "denigrate" Cao's (possible) naivete of the political establishment (which I actually consider to be a personal virtue, btw) and please quote where I call into question this guy's "sanity"?”

    Your Right Hand Thief

  • “KURTZ: But Obama does this a lot, where he takes these swipes at cable television and the pundits, and you can tell that he likes to try to stake out a middle ground and kind of denigrate the press in the process, which is his right.”

    CNN Transcript May 24, 2009

  • “To that extent and to the extent that he thought the Khmer Rouge considered Phnom Penh "Sodom and Gomorrah" Sampson did indeed "denigrate" the food imperative of the evacuation.”

    Fictionaut: Good Luck Sailor

  • “As a matter of fact, they kind of denigrate the whole idea of tankless heaters:”

    Hot water « knitnut.net

  • “And, clearly, that's -- that's really a-- a way to kind of denigrate these cultures and these religions by justifying these really heinous acts in this way.”

    CNN Transcript May 18, 2007

  • “Mr. Stollery Liberal Senator agreed that there is a campaign in Canada to "denigrate" UN operations.”

    Archive 2006-03-01

  • “Hundreds of people have been arrested under the same section of the law, which also makes it an offence to "denigrate" the 79-year - old dictator, under whose rule since 1980 one of the most prosperous economies in Africa has been brought to its knees.”

    ANC Daily News Briefing

  • “To acknowledge and analyze the presence and power of certain "iron cages" in America is not to "denigrate" this country nor to deny the existence of "iron cages" elsewhere in the world whatever their forms and sizes.”

    America the Bad?

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synonyms (1)

Words with the same meaning

  1. defame

reverse dictionary (1)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. tear

tags (1)

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  1. SATWOTD

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‘denigrate’ has been looked up 6071 times, loved by 11 people, added to 68 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 11.