degrade
Americanverb (used with object)
-
degrades,
present (3rd person singular)
-
degraded,
past participle, past
-
degrading
present participle
-
to lower in dignity or estimation; bring into contempt.
He felt they were degrading him by making him report to the supervisor.
- Antonyms:
- exalt
-
to lower in character or quality; debase.
- Antonyms:
- exalt
-
to reduce (someone) to a lower rank, degree, etc.; deprive of office, rank, status, or title, especially as a punishment.
degraded from director to assistant director.
- Antonyms:
- promote
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to reduce in amount, strength, intensity, etc.
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Physical Geography. to wear down by erosion, as hills.
-
Chemistry. to break down (a compound, especially an organic hydrocarbon).
verb (used without object)
-
degrades,
present (3rd person singular)
-
degraded,
past participle, past
-
degrading
present participle
-
to become degraded; weaken or worsen; deteriorate.
-
Chemistry. (especially of an organic hydrocarbon compound) to break down or decompose.
verb
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(tr) to reduce in worth, character, etc; disgrace; dishonour
-
(tr) to reduce in rank, status, or degree; remove from office; demote
-
(tr) to reduce in strength, quality, intensity, etc
-
to reduce or be reduced by erosion or down-cutting, as a land surface or bed of a river Compare aggrade
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chem to decompose or be decomposed into atoms or smaller molecules
Synonym Usage
See humble.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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degradesimple
-
degradessimple
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have degradedperfect
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has degradedperfect
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am degradingprogressive
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are degradingprogressive
-
is degradingprogressive
-
have been degradingperfect progressive
-
has been degradingperfect progressive
Past
-
degradedsimple
-
had degradedperfect
-
was degradingprogressive
-
were degradingprogressive
-
had been degradingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of degrade
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English degraden, from Late Latin dēgradāre, from Latin dē- de- + grad(us) “step, rank, progress” ( see grade) + -āre, infinitive verb suffix
Explanation
To degrade means to reduce the worth of something, as when smoke and pollution degrade the environment. The word can also mean to disrespect or insult: thoughtless comments can degrade a person. If you whistle at a passing woman, you're being disrespectful — your behavior degrades women. Degrade is often used to mean to insult someone because of their gender or race. Degrade also means to break down. Old paper or photographs can degrade when left in the light — their material breaks down so that they crumble at a touch.
Vocabulary lists containing degrade
30 GRE Words Beginning with "D"
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
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How Low Can You Go? Synonyms for "Downward"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The material is relatively weak and may degrade too quickly, which can limit its usefulness when repairing bones that need to bear weight or withstand force.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 12, 2026
The four former commissioners have signed a joint letter arguing that the gondola proposal “would enable a private development to permanently and irreparably shrink, degrade, and destroy the integrity of a state park.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2026
The US strikes, on the eighth successive night of attacks, were "designed to further degrade Iran's ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz", Centcom said.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
The strikes -- which began at 1800 GMT -- were carried out to "further degrade Iranian military capabilities", US Central Command said in a post on X.
From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026
I said, determined to see if he would not offer me the use of the dilapidated outhouse, which certainly no human could degrade any more than time and the elements had.
From "Black Like Me" by John Howard Griffin
When a biopsy is taken, the genetic material in the tissue degrades within hours, unless it is protected.
From BBC ● Jun. 18, 2026
Diet activates autophagy -- a cellular "clean-up" process that degrades and recycles damaged proteins.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 15, 2025
Ferrari also faces the risk of its EV losing value faster than its traditional models as the battery degrades.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2025
Sickness spreads, often directly through viruses or indirectly by depleting family resources, putting stress on people that degrades their health.
From Salon ● May 27, 2025
But a parted activity, divorcing us from ourselves, degrades our noblest parts to the sway of the lowest and renders our task a drudgery and shame.
From Tablets by Amos Bronson Alcott
They argued the cows had degraded the seashore with manure pollution and soil erosion, harming the native wildlife.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026
Power lines have degraded, causing the loss of about 16% of the grid’s electricity, according to research by Torres.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 9, 2026
"I think we have to realise that there are limitations there, and that the US has degraded their defence industrial base to a very significant extent," he says.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
The plasma treatment almost completely degraded both long-chain and short-chain PFAS.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 20, 2026
The European woman, Fannie Kimball, who had married a Southern white slaveowner, described how human beings were degraded.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
Critics of the sentence have described it as "inhumane and degrading".
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
Known as living plastics, these materials contain dormant microbes capable of degrading the surrounding polymer.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 17, 2026
Rigid operational dictates cause infrastructure investment to plummet, ultimately degrading track quality and severely hurting long-term economic productivity.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 9, 2026
The hapless man, Mr. de la Bédoyère writes, “sat by, unable or perhaps unwilling by virtue of his status and deference to do anything about the degrading spectacle.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
There is a theory that the process of aging may be due to the cumulative effect of imprecision, a gradual degrading of information.
From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
