degrade

From Middle French dégrader.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪˈɡɹeɪd/, /diˈɡɹeɪd/

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Rhymes: -eɪd

degrade (third-person singular simple present degrades, present participle degrading, simple past and past participle degraded)

1. (transitive) To lower in value or social position.

   Fred degrades himself by his behaviour.

   • 1858, John Gorham Palfrey, chapter XIV, in History of New England during the Stuart Dynasty. […], volume I, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown, and Company, →OCLC, book I, pages 563–564:

     […] [William] Prynne was sentenced by the Star-Chamber Court to be degraded from the bar, to stand in pillory at two places in London and lose an ear at each, to be branded on the forehead, to pay a fine of five thousand pounds, and to be imprisoned for life.

2. (intransitive, ergative) To reduce in quality or purity.

   The DNA sample has degraded.

3. (transitive, geology) To reduce in altitude or magnitude, as hills and mountains; to wear down.

• degradation
• degrade gracefully

degrade

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

Borrowed from French dégradé.

degrade n (plural degradeuri)

1. color gradient

degrade

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