Search the Dictionary

h, 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's name in vain to debase religion with such frivolous di…

Turned upside down from its proper position; inverted; reversed.

The act of debasing or the state of being debased. Milton.

One who, or that which, debases.

To cast off or down; hence, to abase; to degrade; to lower; to debase. [Obs.] Donne.

To corrupt, debase, or make impure by an admixture of a foreign or a baser substance; as, to adulterate food, drink, drugs, coin, etc. The present war has . . . adulterated our tongue with strange words. Spectator.

The act of adulterating; corruption, or debasement (esp. of food or drink) by foreign mixture. The shameless adulteration of the coin. Prescott.

To abate, impair, or debase by mixture; to allay; as, to alloy pleasure with misfortunes.

To abase or debase; to vilify; to depreciate. [Obs.] Want makes us know the price of what we avile. B. Jonson.

Alloyed with inferior metal; debased; as, base coin; base bullion.

To make carnal; to debase to carnality. A sensual and carnalized spirit. John Scott.

nferior. "Condescend to men of low estate." Rom. xii. 16. Can they think me so broken, so debased With corporal servitude, that my mind ever Will condescend to such absurd commands Milton. Spain's mighty monarch, In gracious clemency, does condescend, On these conditions, to become your friend. Dryden.…

m a state of uprightness, correctness, truth, etc., to a worse state; vitiated; depraved; debased; perverted; as, corrupt language; corrupt judges. At what ease Might corrupt minds procure knaves as corrupt To swear against you. Shak.

ng or of impairing integrity, virtue, or moral principle; the state of being corrupted or debased; loss of purity or integrity; depravity; wickedness; impurity; bribery. It was necessary, by exposing the gross corruptions of monasteries, . . . to exite popular indignation against them. Hallam. They abstained from some…

In a manner to debase.

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

r 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 his state. Blair.

n; 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. Maca…

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

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.