deprave

English

Etymology

From Middle English depraven, from Old French depraver, from Latin dēprāvāre (“pervert, distort, corrupt”), from de- + pravus (“crooked, distorted, perverse, wicked”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪˈpɹeɪv/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪv

Verb

deprave (third-person singular simple present depraves, present participle depraving, simple past and past participle depraved)

1. (transitive) To speak ill of; to depreciate; to malign; to revile

   Synonyms: badmouth, diss, vilify; see also Thesaurus:defame

2. (transitive) To make bad or worse; to vitiate; to corrupt

   Synonyms: blight, upset, ruin; see also Thesaurus:spoil

   • 1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume I: The Founders, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: powstanie (in Polish), →ISBN, →OCLC, page 118:

     Interpreting humanity in purely zoological categories, he saw the social community as a form of natural co-operation within the species, distorted or depraved by religious prejudice, while in moral speculation he did not advance beyond the eudaemonistic schema of the Enlightenment.

Derived terms

• depravement
• depravingly

Related terms

• depravation
• depraved
• depravedness
• depravity

Translations

To speak ill of

• Dutch: kwaad spreken, bekladden (nl)
• Italian: depravare (it)

To make bad or worse

• Bulgarian: развалям (bg) (razvaljam), влошавам (bg) (vlošavam)
• Czech: kazit (cs) impf, zkazit pf, narušit (cs) pf, pokazit mravně pf
• Dutch: slecht maken, doen verloederen, doen ontaarden,
• German: verderben (de)
• Irish: truailligh
• Māori: whakatautauhea
• Turkish:

  Ottoman Turkish: بوزمق (bozmak)

Further reading

• “deprave”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “deprave”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “deprave”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• pervade, repaved

Spanish

Verb

deprave

1. inflection of depravar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative