debase
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From de- + base, from Old French bas, from Latin bassus. Cognate with Spanish debajo (“under, beneath, below”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Verb[edit]
debase (third-person singular simple present debases, present participle debasing, simple past and past participle debased)
- (transitive) To lower in character, quality, or value; to degrade.
- 1961 May 9, Newton N. Minow, "Television and the Public Interest":
- And just as history will decide whether the leaders of today's world employed the atom to destroy the world or rebuild it for mankind's benefit, so will history decide whether today's broadcasters employed their powerful voice to enrich the people or to debase them.
- 1961 May 9, Newton N. Minow, "Television and the Public Interest":
- (transitive, archaic) To lower in position or rank.[1]
- (transitive) To lower the value of (a currency) by reducing the amount of valuable metal in the coins.
Synonyms[edit]
- (lower in character, quality, or value): abase, adulterate, degrade, demean
Derived terms[edit]
Terms derived from debase
Translations[edit]
lower in character, etc
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
References[edit]
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.
Anagrams[edit]
Categories:
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *gʷem-
- English words prefixed with de-
- English terms derived from Old French
- Old French terms derived from Latin
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English terms with archaic senses