Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Expressing disapproval or criticism.
- adj. Mildly disparaging or uncomplimentary, especially of oneself.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Serving or intended to deprecate or avert some threatened evil or action; characterized by entreaty or protest intended to avert something evil or painful.
- n. A deprecating speech or act.
Wiktionary
- adj. That deprecates; apologetic or disparaging
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Tending to remove or avert evil by prayer; apologetic.
- adj. Serving to deprecate; expressing a low opinion of.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. tending to diminish or disparage
Etymologies
- deprecate + -ory (Wiktionary)
Examples
“As the handsome and distinguished-looking bridegroom stood before the altar awaiting the entrance of his bride, it were almost sacrilege to utter a word deprecatory or otherwise.”
“A flaccid, unwholesome-looking hand was raised slowly, in a kind of deprecatory gesture; then allowed to fall again upon the belly where it lay, with the five fingers, round and chalky-white, extended like the rays of a starfish.”
“A gravely sedate demeanour would have seemed the more fitting facial expression for his age and the generally accepted nature of his calling, -- a kind of deprecatory toleration of the sunshine as part of the universal 'vanity' of mundane things, -- or a condescending consciousness of the bursting apple-blossoms within his reach as a kind of inferior earthy circumstance which could neither be altered nor avoided.”
“What put that idea into your head? "replied my father, with a kind of deprecatory smile.”
“Ninety-nine times out of 100 when I have heard Mexicans use the word 'gringo' it's in a way that is deprecatory or worse, usually preceded by 'pinche' -- in other words, designed to be taken as an offense.”
“At a nod from him, the semicircle seated itself on the manienie grass, and with further deprecatory smiles waited his pleasure.”
“If he follows the Kevin Federline playbook, we can expect to see him playing himself in a self-deprecatory Super Bowl ad, guest starring as an impending corpse on a CBS cop show, and emerging as the surprisingly sane parent after Kate goes on a head-shaving bender.”
“Not at all," he answered, with a deprecatory wave of the hand.”
“Not so, good Klok-No-Ton," murmured Scundoo, with a deprecatory wave of the hand.”
“The pianist's role is controlling and self-deprecatory, and Lortie was pervasive yet discreet, pulling the other players and us with him into Chausson's bleak world.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘deprecatory’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
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From reading
Collected from reading
venerate, reprobate, reticent, adoration, ethereal, ephemeral, equivocal, contumacious, heinous, solicitous, agnostic, aberration and 335 more...
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Lolita
Marat, diaphanous, stolid, inveigle, moll, domicile, pugilist, indigent, corpulent, erudite, coruscate, ameliorate and 16 more...
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Vocab_TC60Q_txtbook
most vocab in the textbook Page till end chapter 2.
moribund, unflagging, defunct, sated, inveigling, opining, needling, fulminating, lauding, vassals, serfs, minions and 86 more...
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Words from Moby Dick
frigate, presumptuous, genteel, succor, hearthstone, gentry, factitious, bilious, insurgent, portent, enervate, genuflect and 303 more...
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From Book - SAT & College Dictionary ...
ebb, exotic, immure, abeyance, panegyric, debonair, protege, dissipate, frantic, penitent, abject, edify and 871 more...
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The Confidence Man
Words to remember from Melville's "The Confidence Man"
chevalier, hawk, unalloyed, ex-officio, scruple, pertinacity, epithet, gilt, bedizen, embrasure, escritoire, squaw and 278 more...
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DEF's list
Obscure Words
obfuscate, harbinger, morose, meniscus, conspicuous, grandiose, cogitated, matron, erudite, oness, apothegms, assuage and 475 more...
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"Words, words, words."
abase, abject, abstruse, adjutant, altercation, altruistic, angst, anodyne, anomie, ape, apprehensive, aquiline and 310 more...
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Perplexicon
A wordbook for cataloging those persistent perpetrators of pangs of pain and perpetual unpleasantness. There's some solace in the fact that others needed these words before us, right?
yob, prig, cant, overweening, fop, overweener, pissant, lickspittle, sycophant, lackey, fabulist, bumptious and 24 more...
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Lolita
preambulate, solecism, cognomen, etiolate, platitudinous, apotheosis, jocularity, capricious, expiatory, seraph, alpinist, paleopedology and 88 more...
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2009 Spelling Bee words I actually re...
anodyne, kibbutzim, turgescent, ocarina, hepatomegaly, parnassian, scherzo, mostaccioli, fanfaronade, deprecatory, demesne, ptolemy and 19 more...
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