Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To express disapproval of; deplore.
- v. To belittle; depreciate.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To pray against; pray or entreat the removal or prevention of; pray or desire deliverance from.
- To plead or argue earnestly against; urge reasons against; express disapproval of: said of a scheme, purpose, and the like.
- To imprecate; invoke.
Wiktionary
- v. to belittle or express disapproval of
- v. to declare something obsolescent, i.e, to recommend against a function, technique, command, etc, that still works but has been replaced
- v. to pray against
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To pray against, as an evil; to seek to avert by prayer; to seek deliverance from; to express deep regret for; to desire the removal of.
- v. To protest against; to advance reasons against.
- v. To disapprove of strongly; to express a low opinion of.
WordNet 3.0
Etymologies
- Latin dēprecārī, dēprecāt-, to ward off by prayer : dē-, de- + precārī, to pray; see prek- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“He used words like 'deprecate' and 'wanton act of violence', he adopted a tone that was selfless and a pose that was statesmanlike, but being noble wasn't enough.”
Whispers Of Betrayal
“deprecate" in programming terminology -- bits of code.”
“To deprecate surgery for the elderly because 32% of elderly Americans undergo surgery in the year before they die is like deprecating automobile brakes because 32% of fatal-accident victims hit the brakes in the few seconds before they die.”
The Wall Street Journal: How Many Elderly Does Treatment Save?
“Readers adored it, though Hergé was later to deprecate this fledgling and uneven work.”
“My question remains: why would people elect to describe themselves in a manner that is used to deprecate their group or themselves as individuals within that group?”
“I deprecate whoever has leaked this, since it will lead to confusion and unnecessary concern amongst our valued personnel.”
The Guardian: Job cut hitlist for military personnel to be unveiled by MoD
“I learned, from the views of social life which it developed, to admire their virtues, and to deprecate the vices of mankind.”
“Critics may deprecate the protestors' apparent lack of unity and coherence, but to my mind the individuation of the sentiments gives the protests a certain dignity.”
“Miller goes on to deprecate the state of the West End, particularly the celebrity-ish nature of first nights.”
The Guardian: Jonathan Miller: I'd rather be at Marks and Spencer than the theatre
“Throughout the years I've seen many a comic self-deprecate when their jokes seem to fall flat.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘deprecate’.
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Topical
The buzzwords of our time
actionable, administrivia, advermation, agreeance, backbone provider, back-sourcing, baked in, bandwidth, barn raising, Barneyware, belly-buttons, Below Zeros and 734 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 4084 more...
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SAT words
tergiversate, cymotrichous, vigilance, wince, consternation, cower, neutralize, euphony, cacophony, misanthrope, bibliophile, kleptomania and 81 more...
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Words that Julio has taught me
panegyric, encomium, navigable, gerrymander, carpetbagging, insidious, ribald, vilify, epithalamion, cogent, deprecate, apocryphal
jjackel elgiad007 is on the right track. In computer programming, deprecated means that the developer of a framework will no longer support a particular function or method. It does not necessarily mean there is a direct replacement. Sometimes the developer takes a completely different approach to a problem. Nonetheless, a deprecated method often continues to work for a time. When the developer declares a method deprecated, s/he is explicitly breaking the implied contract that new versions of a framework will work with older programs, preparing programmers and users for the possibility that their stuff may no longer work or may stop working someday. Jan 6, 2010
bilby I finally found an example of the usage elgiad is referring to:
"Amazon Ecommerce Web Service 3.0 has been deprecated after many years of useful service on March 31st 2008. Please upgrade to the Amazon Associates Web Service 4.0 as detailed in the migration guide."
- notice on websters-online-dictionary.org Jan 29, 2009
elgiad007 This word is commonly used to describe computer programs or library functions that have been replaced by newer or better versions (I use the logical operator "or" here to point out that a new version does not denote a better one, as in the case of some Microsoft Windows upgrades). Nov 7, 2008
chained_bear Stop marginalizing my discourse.
(Joke alert!) Aug 15, 2008
whichbe Depreciate sounds so dramatic, like getting bescumbered. "Yer ass got depreciated!" Aug 15, 2008
super-logos I think deprecate means to affirmatively put someone or something down. It is not a bagatelle. I think one deprecates when one stands up in a crowd to denounce something or when one is in a public forum, such as a newspaper. It is an ongoing repudiation. To depreciate is to devalue or go down. A stock can depreciate in value. Aug 15, 2008
milosrdenstvi Because I generally use it more in the sense of "I don't think so" instead of "that's WRONG!" Aug 15, 2008
chained_bear I'm going to appropriate that. Why do you think it veers off into depreciate? It seems like it's used just dandily.
The phrase reminds me of a class I was in once, in which one student complained that another was "marginalizing my discourse." Aug 15, 2008
milosrdenstvi Totally awesome in the form "I deprecate the validity of that assertion." (Technically that's more the territory of depreciate, but I've sort of merged the two words into the one that sounds good.) Aug 15, 2008