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Destruction; -- opposed to creation. [R.] Cudworth.

To cry down; to censure as faulty, mean, or worthless; to clamor against; to blame clamorously; to discredit; to disparage. For small errors they whole plays decry. Dryden. Measures which are extolled by one half of the kingdom are naturally decried by the other. Addison.

Having become worse than one's kind, or 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 pla…

In a degenerate manner; unworthily.

To render godlike. By our own spirits are we deified. Wordsworth.

To esteem worthy; to consider worth notice; -- opposed to disdain. [Obs.] I fear my Julia would not deign my lines. Shak.

Of or pertaining to a demon. [Obs.] Cudworth.

rals; to destroy or lessen the effect of moral principles on; to render corrupt or untrustworthy in morals, in discipline, in courage, spirit, etc.; to weaken in spirit or efficiency. The demoralizing example of profligate power and prosperous crime. Walsh. The vices of the nobility had demoralized the army. Bancroft.…

value of about fourteen cents; the "penny" of the New Testament; -- so called from being worth originally ten of the pieces called as.

Worthy of being depended on; trustworthy. "Dependable friendships." Pope.

Worthy of being deplored or lamented; lamentable; causing grief; hence, sad; calamitous; grievous; wretched; as, life's evils are deplorable. Individual sufferers are in a much more deplorable conditious than any others. Burke.

n; to dethrone; to divest or deprive of office. A tyrant over his subjects, and therefore worthy to be deposed. Prynne.

To lessen in price or estimated value; to lower the worth of; to represent as of little value or claim to esteem; to undervalue. Addison. Which . . . some over-severe phoilosophers may look upon fastidiously, or undervalue and depreciate. Cudworth. To prove that the Americans ought not to be free, we are obliged to dep…

The falling of value; reduction of worth. Burke.

; to divert from a sacred purpose; to violate the sanctity of; to profane; to put to an unworthy use; -- the opposite of consecrate. The [Russian] clergy can not suffer corporal punishment without being previously desecrated. W. Tooke. The founders of monasteries imprecated evil on those who should desecrate their dona…

To earn by service; to be worthy of (something due, either good or evil); to merit; to be entitled to; as, the laborer deserves his wages; a work of value deserves praise. God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth. Job xi. 6. John Gay deserved to be a favorite. Thackeray. Encouragement is not held out to…

Meritorious; worthy; as, a deserving or act. -- De*serv"ing*ly, adv.

Worthy of desire or longing; fitted to excite desire or a wish to possess; pleasing; agreeable. All of them desirable young men. Ezek. xxiii. 12. As things desirable excite Desire, and objects move the appetite. Blackmore.

Fit or deserving to be despised; contemptible; mean; vile; worthless; as, a despicable man; despicable company; a despicable gift.

The quality of being despicable; meanness; vileness; worthlessness.