Definitions

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

  • transitive verb To condemn as wrong or reprehensible.
  • transitive verb To express disapproval of (a person); denounce: synonym: criticize.
  • transitive verb To depreciate (currency, for example) by official proclamation or by rumor.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • 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.

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

  • transitive verb To cry down; to censure as faulty, mean, or worthless; to clamor against; to blame clamorously; to discredit; to disparage.

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

  • verb transitive To denounce as harmful.
  • verb transitive To blame for ills.

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

  • verb express strong disapproval of

Etymologies

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

[French décrier, from Old French descrier : des-, de- + crier, to cry; see cry.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French descrier ("to shout"), from des- + crier ("to cry"); see cry.

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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 2009

  • 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.

    Balkinization 2006

  • 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.

    Balkinization 2006

  • The calls decry high gasoline prices, linking them to Democratic opposition to expanded oil exploration and gasoline-tax cuts.

    Vegas Tycoon Bankrolls Republicans 2008

  • 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.

    Balkinization 2006

  • 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.

    Balkinization 2006

  • 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.

    Balkinization 2006

  • 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.

    Balkinization 2006

  • 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.

    Balkinization 2006

  • 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.

    Balkinization 2006

Comments

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  • The Century's synonyms are interesting--I don't think I've ever heard derogate from.

    February 29, 2012