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One who deals; one who has to do, or has concern, with others; esp., a trader, a trafficker, a shopkeeper, a broker, or a merchant; as, a dealer in dry goods; a dealer in stocks; a retail dealer.

To reduce from a higher to a lower state or grade of worth, dignity, purity, station, etc.; to degrade; to lower; to deteriorate; to abase; as, to debase the character by crime; to debase the mind by frivolity; to debase style by vulgar words. The coin which was adulterated and debased. Hale. It is a kind of taking God…

To remove from a class; to separate or degrade from one's class. North Am. Rev.

r one's former state; having declined in worth; having lost in goodness; deteriorated; degraded; unworthy; base; low. Faint-hearted and degenerate king. Shak. A degenerate and degraded state. Milton. Degenerate from their ancient blood. Swift. These degenerate days. Pope. I had planted thee a noble vine . . . : how the…

The state or condition of a species or group which exhibits degraded forms; degeneration. The degradation of the species man is observed in some of its varieties. Dana.

upward or downward, in quality, rank, acquirement, and the like; a stage in progression; grade; gradation; as, degrees of vice and virtue; to advance by slow degrees; degree of comparison.

To debase; to lower; to degrade; -- followed by the reflexive pronoun. Her son would demean himself by a marriage with an artist's daughter. Thackeray.

Tending to lower, depress, or degrade.

To reduce to a lower grade, as in school.

on or upon; as, dependent on God; dependent upon friends. England, long dependent and degraded, was again a power of the first rank. Macaulay. Dependent covenant or contract (Law), one not binding until some connecting stipulation is performed. -- Dependent variable (Math.), a varying quantity whose changes are arbit…

One who deposes or degrades from office.

To lessen the activity of; to make dull; embarrass, as trade, commerce, etc.

Diminution, as of trade, etc.; inactivity; dullness.

Diminished in value; dishonored; degraded. [R.] Shak.

A degraded tribe of California Indians; -- so called from their practice of digging roots for food.

To lessen the authority or dignity of; to put down; to degrade; to abase; to weaken. This doth nothing diminish their opinion. Robynson (More's Utopia). I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations. Ezek. xxix. 15. O thou . . . at whose sight all the stars Hide their diminished heads. Milton.…

the general planetary motion, or from west to east; in the order of the signs; not retrograde; -- said of the motion of a celestial body. Direct action. (Mach.) See Direct-acting. -- Direct discourse (Gram.), the language of any one quoted without change in its form; as, he said "I can not come;" -- correlative to in…

To debase or degrade. [Obs.] Nor you nor your house were so much as spoken of before I disbased myself. B. Jonson.

To deprive of that which ennobles; to degrade. An unworthy behavior degrades and disennobles a man. Guardian.

To degrade; to reduce in rank. [Obs.] Tyndale.