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Meanly timid; cowardly; base; as, a dastardly outrage.

Base timidity; cowardliness.

or admitted; a fact or principle granted; that upon which an inference or an argument is based; -- used chiefly in the plural. Any writer, therefore, who . . . furnishes us with data sufficient to determine the time in which he wrote. Priestley.

In a manner to debase.

collectively; especially, fragments detached from a rock or mountain, and piled up at the base.

virtue, of science, of a state, etc. Seduced the pitch and height of all his thoughts To base declension. Shak.

Extending downward; -- said of a leaf whose base extends downward and forms a wing along the stem. -- De*cur"rent*ly, adv.

ate; 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 then art thou turned…

t or state of growing worse, or the state of having become worse; decline; degradation; debasement; degeneracy; deterioration. Our degeneration and apostasy. Bates.

Degenerate; base. [Obs.] "Degenerous passions." Dryden. "Degenerous practices." South.

Basely. [Obs.]

The state of being reduced in rank, character, or reputation; baseness; moral, physical, or intellectual degeneracy; disgrace; abasement; debasement. The . . . degradation of a needy man of letters. Macaulay. Deplorable is the degradation of our nature. South. Moments there frequently must be, when a sidegradation of h…

to lessen the value of; to lower the physical, moral, or intellectual character of; to debase; to bring shame or contempt upon; to disgrace; as, vice degrades a man. O miserable mankind, to what fall Degraded, to what wretched state reserved! Milton. He pride . . . struggled hard against this degrading passion. Macaul…

Reduced in rank, character, or reputation; debased; sunken; low; base. The Netherlands . . . were reduced practically to a very degraded condition. Motley.

leaf (Bot.), a leaf in the form of a triangle with the stem inserted at the middle of the base. -- Deltoid muscle (Anat.), a triangular muscle in the shoulder which serves to move the arm directly upward.

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.

To bring down or humble; to abase, as pride.

Humiliation; abasement, as of pride.

a lower, less fortunate, humbler, less virtuous, or worse, state or station; to lower or abase one's self; as, he descended from his high estate.

cooling, the result being the formation of crystallites, microbites, etc., in the glassy base, which are then called devitrification products.