abasement

American  

[uh-beys-muhnt] / əˈbeɪs mənt /

noun

1. the state or condition of having been reduced in rank, office, reputation, or estimation; degradation.

   Her self-respect, even in abasement, has kept her struggling upward.

   We must look closely at what is happening to education in our country and challenge its abasement.

2. the act of reducing, humbling, or degrading someone or something.

   The 1801 agreement led to the abasement of Austria and Prussia and the division of Europe between two great powers, France and Russia.

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Etymology

Origin of abasement

abase ( def. ) + -ment ( def. )

Example Sentences

After reading “Girl on Girl,” I felt almost sticky with proxy humiliation, as Gilbert evokes example after example of female abasement in pop culture.

From Los Angeles Times • May 7, 2025

Or by observing the climate of denunciation and abasement in various cultural spaces, from academic journals to law schools to the publishing industry.

From New York Times • Aug. 7, 2021

A lesser songwriter would either paint the couple in a false glow of romance or wallow in the tawdry abasement.

From Slate • Aug. 8, 2019

Chris is only one of his many admirers, and so her devotion takes on an air of ritual abasement before a Great Man.

From The New Yorker • May 15, 2017

They even join in the “Wal-Mart cheer” when required to do so at meetings, I’m told by the evening fitting room lady, though I am fortunate enough never to witness this final abasement.

From "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich